October 30, 2015

What Are The Scariest Movies, Books, & Stories?— Ace

I can't say it's the scariest movie of all time, but The Conjuring was the last movie I was really scared by, and I kept turning it off at night because it was making me feel... not good. Interestingly, there is no cursing, no sex, no "mature themes," and only the briefest shots of blood and dead things, but it got an R- rating anyway: for "terror." They can't point at why this kids aren't allowed to see this, but it's so scary they're slapping an R on it anyway.

That's quite an advertisement. (I don't disagree, by the way: Kids shouldn't see this. It will give them nightmares, for years.)

And then there is the music around murder. The music and stingers in Murder on the Orient Express are just stuck in my mind as frightening noises. The flashbacks of the all the deaths in the past, with those scary music cues... always gives me a little scare.

And speaking of scary music, while the movie itself isn't so good, the opening sequence, and then the super-scary music, of Francis Ford Coppolla's first movie, Dementia 13, is great. Very scary. (Like I said, rest of the movie, meh, though I was surprised at what you could show back then -- nudity, decapitations.)

As far as books: I'm not sure I've read a really scary book. I thought Misery and the Shining were kinda scary. Again, the books that actually scare me are just books about murder.

Oh -- I did read one that was very weird, and so was kind of scary -- House of Leaves. Before you read it, though, make sure you check the description, to read how weird and experimental this book is. It's very odd indeed.

Any recommendations?

BTW: I'll put up a Hounds thread later, or maybe just wait for tomorrow.

4
Stephen King's The Stand. The initial breakdown of society in the early part of the book is described in a ton of anecdotes, descriptions of television and radio transmissions, newspaper articles, police radio transcripts, military documents...so chilling.

13
And Ace, if you liked The Strangers, you should check out "Funny Games". I'd recommend the American version.

Posted by: S at October 30, 2015 12:39 PM (HCXGq)

14
I started watching the English language remake of an Austrian movie called "Funny Games." It was the scariest, most shockingly violent movie I have ever seen. I had to turn it off. It's about two serial killers who take a family hostage in their cabin.

Posted by: no good deed at October 30, 2015 12:39 PM (GgxVX)

15
Shillery's cooter in a dimly lit room scares me the most of all. It has teeth and is always smiling at me.

20
I won't watch supernatural scary movies although I did see the exorcist (and then we walked down the stairs in Georgetown).
I like scream type stuff, that's sort of slasher but also tongue in cheek. I don't want to be really scared. Thrillers are good too, where there is something psychological going on...

Posted by: Lea at October 30, 2015 12:42 PM (vmMMi)

21
I used to think that "Being There" was a nice, light-hearted (albeit quiet) comedy. Then we elected Obama.

22
So I went to The Conjuring trailer on youtube and a fellow calling himself "douchebag" wrote: "Based on the true story of the Warrens. Out of the thousands of cases they investigated there is one so made up, they couldn't convince anyone it happened. Until now." Someone tried to argue with him and his comeback was great.

Posted by: Matt at October 30, 2015 12:43 PM (90w0O)

23
I have Dementia 13 on a huge box set collection of "so bad they're good" flicks. I've never made it past the first 20 minutes or so. One of these days...

Posted by: WhatWhatWhat? at October 30, 2015 12:43 PM (HMt16)

24
Too gimmicky for me.
My first kid was three when I watched it. I think that had something to do with why I had to turn it off. You know the scene I'm talking about.

26
It's kinda crazy, but "Beautiful and Twisted" really traumatized me recently. It's a Lifetime movie, and what got me was it was advertised as this lighthearted romp, and they never mentioned in the ads that 1) this was closely based on true events, 2) that there was a couple of murders which would take place in the film, and 3) the murders would be gruesomely depicted.
The movie that scared me as a kid (and that's different, I know) was "The Monolith Monsters," about meteor rocks that would grow when they got wet and kill people. I couldn't bring myself to wash a rock for the longest time after that.

27
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons. Zombie soldier, scary school, based on the town I live in. Scared me pretty good.

Posted by: Vinron at October 30, 2015 12:43 PM (KW0aJ)

28
Hey that short is from a story that I first found a couple of years ago. Nice to see someone made a film from it, but I think the story is scarier.

Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 30, 2015 12:44 PM (4ErVI)

29
The Ring and Blair Witch Project both kept me up for weeks because A) I had a TV in my dorm room, and B) an exterior coat rack (ie, not in a closet hidden from view) and the shape of my coat hanging on it in the middle of the night was too much like a shot from BWP.

More recently, the first Paranormal Activity (when you don't really know what direction they're going with it) messed me up to the point I kept looking away from the screen even though nothing was happening.

It was doubly bad as I had closed captioning turned on (I forget why I first put it on and then couldn't get rid of it) and in one of the nothing happening sequences, I had a brief panic as the following text appeared onscreen:

Sounds of demon breathing

Except, I couldn't hear anything. I don't know why, but that made it worse.

31
Still can't beat The Exorcist for all-around scared s***less.
Posted by: pep
Ultimate test of how comfortable you are in a new house/apartment: can you watch The Exorcist right before bed and still sleep.

32
I thought The Others was a good scary story. I also liked Skeleton Key.

Posted by: no good deed at October 30, 2015 12:45 PM (GgxVX)

33
3 The Ring. Scarred me silly.
Only good thing is my friend started answering my phone calls by whispering " seven days".
Posted by: The Sampo at October 30, 2015 05:36 PM (btcb3)
I actually saw the Japanese original a few years prior to the US version and it scared the living hell out of me. When the chick came crawling out of the TV I just about jumped out of my skin.

35I couldn't bring myself to wash a rock for the longest time after that.
Posted by: elaine

Ummmm......

Posted by: pep at October 30, 2015 12:45 PM (LAe3v)

36
Upon first read, King's story THE MIST is quite moodily scary at the beginning, not so much as it wears on. For all his probably psychoses, that and the blind girl hearing the monsters coming in THE LANGOLIERS is his scariest, imo.

Movie-wise, when I think scary, THE EXORCIST comes to mind but not for the usual reasons. The scene early on where poltergeist stuff starts happening and the mother goes to the attic with a candle. It wasn't until the DVD that I could notice very soft, eerie wind noises as she prepares to go up the stairs, as you'd hear in any large older house. That sound has always disturbed me in real life so that is one well-done creepy scene. Pretty much everything else in it is too over the top.

38
scariest movie--"The Safety of Objects".
2nd scariest--"Schindler's List"
horror is what we do together ( to each other )
Posted by: English guy who makes tangential comments
In that case, The Chekist should be on that list.

39
I love horror fils, but some of the films I thought were scary as a kid turned out to be pretty dumb with older eyes like "Nightmare on Elm Street."
I will say though the Exorcist was pretty damn scary.

42
The Thing is the only book I've ever read that was really creepy. It was such a horrible idea, a biological horror that spreads silently among the group. And you never know when things got infected, you never know how far it's already gone. At one point, the cows were assimilated, they tested them and found they were things. I think one character said, in a shell-shocked way 'they looked damn funny when they started melting'. But how much of the milk in storage is infected etc? Has anyone drunk it since?

The fear and paranoia, really effective. And I think the move was damn creepy too.

Posted by: Amos at October 30, 2015 12:49 PM (nPo3O)

43
"I did read one that was very weird, and so was kind of scary -- House of Leaves. Before you read it, though, make sure you check the description, to read how weird and experimental this book is. It's very odd indeed."
I started that book but quit because it just seemed a little too avant garde, was it worth the payoff?

Posted by: Coolio at October 30, 2015 12:49 PM (I4PQV)

44
I always liked The Changeling with George C. Scott and his wife. Creeped me right the fuck out as a young teen.

45
I thought the first half of Jeepers Creepers was very well done.
Finding out later the director was a pedophile adds a different layer of creepy to it.

Posted by: bonhomme at October 30, 2015 12:49 PM (jhqr1)

46
9 Shadow Over Innsmouth. Generates real sense of panic and isolation like no other HPL story.
Posted by: Bruce Boehner at October 30, 2015 05:38 PM (E5UB0)
That's a good one, but the one that really creeped me out was The Colour Out of Space. I was reading it in pieces over a few nights and had to actually stop reading it *at night* because I kept jumping at everything.

52
I was about 13 but I saw the original version of "Ghost Ship" on late night television and it creeped me out. There was also some movie with Karen Black that disturbed me but I recall nothing about it.

After seeing 12 year old kids hacking off the heads of infidels, I'm pretty desensitized.

The violence has to be very graphic, like "Saw" which I watched with my god-daughter where people were thrown into vats of hypo needles. It was so gruesome - at the time - that I had to keep taking breaks which she thought was funny.

Posted by: Stateless Infidel at October 30, 2015 12:50 PM (AC0lD)

53
Here's a bone chilling tale called Incident on the Road to Sydney:
http://tinyurl.com/an8ad4

Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 30, 2015 12:50 PM (4ErVI)

54
The scariest book I ever read was Revelation by CJ Sansom. It's about a serial killer London during Henry VIII's reign.
It's the fourth book in a series but you don't need to read the entire series to enjoy this. The terror keeps building and building and building. The murder scenes are gruesome. Having the antagonist be a serial killer really made it horrifying, because you know the killer would not stop. You were just waiting to see who the next victim was. The scene where the killer is revealed is the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced. For real, I was gripping the book so hard.
Actually, all of Sansom's books in this series are pretty scary. They're all murder mysteries. Sometimes he goes off on long tangents in the books but they're still awesome.

57
Exorcist one three and four were very creepy. The Omen and Rosemary's Baby also good. I just saw an English horror movie "Night of the Demon" that seems to be an early inspiration for those 'Catholic Horror' types.

60
44 I always liked The Changeling with George C. Scott and his wife. Creeped me right the fuck out as a young teen.
Posted by: RedMindBlueState at October 30, 2015 05:49 PM (KrAjA)
The whole sequence of events that lead to the ball bouncing down the stairs alone brings on waves of chills.
Really, they could've just released that as the film and it would've worked. Just those scenes, the ball comes down the stairs, Scott reacts, The End.

Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 30, 2015 12:52 PM (4ErVI)

61
Dean Koontz Intensity was a very good horror book though I'm not sure how easy it is for a book to scare someone.

65
Session 9
The Descent
Both are a heady stew of scary and creepy. Like 'em both.
I've found that it's tough for a film to hold a consistently scary vibe. It tends to be easier to find individual scary scenes or scary sections of those films.
Like Evil Dead II. The first act, where Ash is pretty much going insane is actually quite scary, at least until Raimi repeatedly punctures the balloon with a Three Stooges gag. Once the rest of the cast joins Ash, it's not really scary anymore. Fun, but not scary.
Or Phantasm. Low budget, cheap scares. But for me, the scariest scene was the false ending where you're lead to believe that it's all in the kid's imagination as a reaction to his beloved older brother's death in a car accident. For some reason, that scared the piss out of me when I saw it as a kid.

67
Jaws
Duel
The Thing
Duel was the scariest because the monster was a truck controlled by a deranged man.
Sharks are real, but you kind of have to put yourself in their midst. Alien demons are imaginary (sorry, Fox).
But trucks are everywhere and deranged people are not exactly in short supply.

Posted by: eman at October 30, 2015 12:53 PM (MQEz6)

68Salem's Lot may be the scariest book I've read.
Posted by: Bob's House of Flannel Shirts and Wallet Chains at October 30, 2015 05:51 PM

69
Jaws was scary. The Exorcist was scary. The books were way scarier than the movies.

Posted by: goon at October 30, 2015 12:54 PM (gy5kE)

70
I saw the Blair Witch Project first run. I'd never heard of it, nor seen any of the advertisement, but it couldn't be beat in the annoying whiney kids department. I was rooting for their deaths. Also, the shakey cam thing gave me a headache, so there's that.

71
The Daily Mail has a true story up that will scare your pants off. Literally. Some dude named Yusaf Mack, a former boxing champion in some category, got caught doing a gay porn video with two other men for some black gay porn site.

He explained how he they tricked and drugged him. He's not gay, not all. In fact, he pleaded that he loves women and was in fact what you would call a whoremonger, so into women he is. They told him was going to do a porno with women, but then gave him a pill that apparently turned him gay against his will and he went at it with the two other men and has no memory of it.

74Exorcist one three and four were very creepy. The Omen and Rosemary's Baby also good. I just saw an English horror movie "Night of the Demon" that seems to be an early inspiration for those 'Catholic Horror' types.

Posted by: Hillary's

Exorcist III and that hallway scene. One of the most effective scenes in cinema.

76
The Descent is still my favorite horror movie. No matter how many times I watch it, I still end up pausing at some point and just end up pacing around the room from anxiety. It Follows was the best horror movie I saw this year. It has an interesting concept and I legit jumped out of my seat at several parts.
ace, if you liked The Strangers, you should try watching You're Next - same kind of premise, but it has a bit of a fun twist.

Posted by: stephanie brown at October 30, 2015 12:56 PM (1uMz1)

77The whole sequence of events that lead to the ball bouncing down the stairs alone brings on waves of chills.

Really, they could've just released that as the film and it would've
worked. Just those scenes, the ball comes down the stairs, Scott
reacts, The End.
Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 30, 2015 05:52 PM

That was very well done. The one bit that creeped me out the most was the bit from the seance scene.

*spoiler alert*

When the medium asked the obvious "Are you the ghost of the child who was killed by the coal cart?"

80
"It" really was a great book by Stephen King, I couldn't put that down.
King writes a lot of crap though, I would say a good 3 out of 4 of his books are garbage and just about all of his good books were written 30 years ago.

Posted by: Coolio at October 30, 2015 12:57 PM (I4PQV)

81
The scariest book I've read recently was probably The Rite. There's a movie sort-of based on it, but of course it's a bit more sensational. Anyway, it's not a fiction novel, it's basically a journalist detailing his interviews with a priest who has become an exorcist. The priest in question he met at a conference in Rome on exorcism and at the time the priest didn't really believe in demonic posession. However through some interactions and observing some prominent Roman exorcist he changed his mind. I think what's so scary is that it *isn't* fiction and it's not written in a Hollywood or sensationalized way. It's just a laying out of discussions and experiences. It's very frightening.

88
King writes a lot of crap though, I would say a good 3 out of 4 of his books are garbage and just about all of his good books were written 30 years ago.
Posted by: Coolio
I've heard that he doesn't even write his own books anymore, he pays recent English major grads to write the books and puts his name to it.

93
Ill Tempered, The Descent by Jeff Long? I have an unedited proof.
Posted by: typo dynamofo at October 30, 2015 05:58 PM (ZY2zO)
Nah. The movie with the Brit chicks going spelunking and finding they are not alone.....

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2015 01:01 PM (o98Jz)

94
Stephen King's best stuff, in my opinion, were his Bachman stories.

95
I've read countless novels in my time, and there are always a few stories that stay with me. "Wolfen" by Whitley Streiber was a gripping story, loved it. Didn't see the movie, but the books are better 99% of the time.

"Pet Semetery" by Stephen King really gave me the willies (even if he went over the top at the end, which he usually does). I was so deep into reading that book that I didn't even notice we ran out of oil until it was 60 degrees in the house. I think the reason it grabbed me was because after our dog was hit by a car when I was 16, I had a dream where the vet gave her a shot and made her live again. But she wasn't "right" and in the dream I had to drown her in the bathtub.

98Stephen King's best stuff, in my opinion, were his Bachman stories.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at October 30, 2015 06:01 PM (39g3+)
That was "The Long Walk", "Running Man" and a couple of others, right? Not his worst work, I'll say.

106Dean Koontz Intensity was a very good horror book though I'm not sure how easy it is for a book to scare someone.
Posted by: Hillary's alcoholic depression at October 30, 2015 05:53 PM
I second this recommendation. One of my favorite books.

Posted by: stephanie brown at October 30, 2015 01:03 PM (1uMz1)

107
IT had a wonderful wrap-up but I still cannot stomach what amounted to the child porn scene the adults suddenly all remembered.
Posted by: doomed
__________________
Wasn't that "recollection" edited in some editions?
In my opinion, the publisher should have removed it as it did nothing for the story but make say Stephen King must be one sick man

Posted by: Coolio at October 30, 2015 01:04 PM (I4PQV)

108
After much thought, I reluctantly concluded that the answer is "no." The proudly socialist Democrats are full of passionate intensity, while the Republican leadership is full of pathetic excuses. After this week's House GOP "budget deal," which betrays nearly every promise made to grassroots conservatives since 2010, I have decided it is time to end my affiliation with the Republican Party.

This decision has been incubating over the past 17 years, years of watching the downward spiral of the Party of Lincoln and Reagan into the Party of Democrat Lite.

110
I like M.R. James stories. I got a paperback with almost all of his stories years ago and am still saving one or two at the end of the book. They aren't super scary but I guess they're quaint. But definitely a few scenes in his stories stand out as scary-as-crap. Haunting. Very British. Great rainy day reads.

For scary movies I like The Shining the most. Love the pacing and the maturity of it. Hate the slasher genre crap. For recent scary movies The Woman in Black is the best I've seen in a while - for a guy who grew up watching Hammer horror films, it was great.

Posted by: Dang at October 30, 2015 01:05 PM (2oWD2)

111
The Haunting of Hill House By Shirley Jackson and the movie "The Haunting" were both good. The movie (being it was made in the 60s) was low on gore and high on dread. I remember having nightmares as a kid after watching it.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 30, 2015 01:06 PM (No/ki)

112
Event Horizon was good. Another creepy movie very few people have seen was Prince of Darkness. They had belief systems pretty scrambled, but it was an interesting movie.
For books, Salem's Lot is hard to beat. I actually had more trouble reading The Shining, though. The Shining was just relentless at building tension.

Posted by: Advo at October 30, 2015 01:06 PM (7hUS8)

113
never got into horror movies, but i love a good old mystery/murder mystery.
the only horror type that come to mind are duel and the hitcher (the older one)

Posted by: concrete girl at October 30, 2015 01:06 PM (f3K9g)

114
King's The Dark Half had one of the best villains ever. Just a thug with a razor blade and a black car. A hint of super natural evil too.

One of the stupidest endings of all time, however. Just as bad as IT. Nearly as bad as the end of the Gunslinger series. Sense a trend?

Posted by: typo dynamofo at October 30, 2015 01:06 PM (ZY2zO)

115
I felt so dumb I didn't figure out Bruce Willis was dead in the Sixth Sense. But saw it again recently and it is a chilling movie

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2015 01:06 PM (gE2Li)

116
The first time I saw the Russian Roulette scenes in Deer Hunter. They scared the shit out of me.Saw The Exorcist on mescaline. They kicked us out because we were laughing so hard.

120
Not a horor film but "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn is scary the first time

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 30, 2015 01:08 PM (No/ki)

121
The Shout 1977 with Alan Bates. Polanski directs and stars in The Tenant.

Posted by: Birdbath at October 30, 2015 01:08 PM (TgkA/)

122
What's funny is Stephen King HATES the movie version of the Shining that Kubrick did, which I would argue was probably the only horror movie of his that was actually good. 99% of the movies that have come from his books were steaming piles of crap.
And get this, the big reason King hates it is because it was misogynist and anti-woman because the Wendy character was helpless. Liberals can never turn off their politics.

Posted by: Coolio at October 30, 2015 01:08 PM (I4PQV)

123
I watched 'The Haunting' one night with all the lights off. Creepy film.
Funny thing though. When I was a kid they showed the movie 'The House on the Haunted Hill' late one night and I got really scared and turned it off. Saw it again years later as an adult and of course enjoyed the hell out of it. Once scene that cracked me up was Vincent Price putting his hand around his wife's' throat and saying what a perfect match it was.

125
Obvious choice: The Shining (particularly the "Red rum" stuff and the revelation of all-work-and-no-play when seen for the first time).
And going to the way back machine: Rosemarie's Baby for the oppressive atmosphere of conspiracy and sickness.
Highly distuburing, somewhat incoherent: Jacob's Ladder. The "whipping heads" effect and (like Rosemary's Baby) pervasive atmosphere of paranoia becomes thicker and more disturbing as the movie progresses.
Less obvious in the "terror" genre but altogether great film with some truly frightening moments: Mel Gibson's "Signs." Particularly the small scale scenes when trapped in the storm celler, listening to aliens with bad intent skitter around the outer world trying to make their way in *shudder*

Posted by: Ex NYC Peasant at October 30, 2015 01:10 PM (k8tEg)

126
Not a scary movie person so much but I remember one called "Dark Night of the Scarecrow" that would wig me out when I was younger.

Posted by: Ricardo Kill at October 30, 2015 01:10 PM (LA7Cm)

127112 Event Horizon was good. Another creepy movie very few people have seen was Prince of Darkness. They had belief systems pretty scrambled, but it was an interesting movie.
For books, Salem's Lot is hard to beat. I actually had more trouble reading The Shining, though. The Shining was just relentless at building tension.
Posted by: Advo at October 30, 2015 06:06 PM (7hUS
Event Horizon was really creepy. I think the Warhammer 40k borrowed heavily on its idea that warp space was actually hell.

Posted by: Iblis at October 30, 2015 01:10 PM (rP2JJ)

128
Sober? Why, that would be 'It'. Stoned? 'Jaws', of course. Third place? 'Alien'.

Posted by: Eromero at October 30, 2015 01:10 PM (b+df9)

129
Posted by: HH at October 30, 2015 06:09 PM (DrCtv)
Yes, The House On Haunted hill is campy fun as an adult-but not related to Jackson's story.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 30, 2015 01:11 PM (No/ki)

130
"Highly distuburing, somewhat incoherent: Jacob's Ladder. "
That was a good one. I remember it.

131What's funny is Stephen King HATES the movie version of the Shining that Kubrick did, which I would argue was probably the only horror movie of his that was actually good. 99% of the movies that have come from his books were steaming piles of crap.
And get this, the big reason King hates it is because it was misogynist and anti-woman because the Wendy character was helpless. Liberals can never turn off their politics.
Posted by: Coolio at October 30, 2015 06:08 PM (I4PQV)
I'm sure he's refused every royalty check on principle.

132
"didn't figure out Bruce Willis was dead in the Sixth Sense"
Neither did I until the end. Then, when you look back at the scene where Willis and the mom are waiting for the kid to get home from school, sitting in the chairs next to each other, and they never say a word to one another. She couldn't see him.

143
I can't remember if this was a Twilight Zone episode, or one of the shows on the Alfred Hitchcock TV series. All I remember was there was some kind of general store or something with a big counter, and a giant jar of human eyeballs on it.

144
For me 'real people' horror is way more scary than the supernatural stuff. I remember being very disappointed with "The Exorcist" when I watched it as a teen. But I was haunted by a frozen Jack Nicholson in "The Shining." (you could argue it had some supernatural in it, but the killer aspect was all Jack and all human)

I would say one of my recent faves was "Prisoner" with Hugh Jackman. The horror of what people can do to each other out of fear and misunderstanding. The scenes in the abandoned apartment complex were hard to watch.

One supernatural type film that still freaks me out is "Event Horizon." Science fiction. Deep in space. People going mad or are they in hell? Frightening stuff.

Posted by: K-E at October 30, 2015 01:13 PM (mD2pZ)

145Duel. Where the truck stalks Dennis Weaver.
That is a really effective movie, I agree. very chilling with such a simple concept.

146
The Strangers is probably one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. I didn't sleep very well for weeks. Went and saw Crimson Peak last week and it was pretty damn good if anyone out there is inclined to go see a good scary movie. It's also a period piece so I was totally in love with the costumes and sets.
My favorite this time of year is the original Halloween. Kind of a tradition here. The Thing, with Kurt Russell is also one of my all time favorites.

Posted by: jewells45 at October 30, 2015 01:14 PM (5fvBZ)

147
The Tell-tale Heart by E.A. Poe scared the crap out of me when my 9th grade history teacher played a record of Richard Burton reading it. Man, that guy was an ACTOR.

Robert McCammon could scare me back when he wrote horror. Turn on the lights kind of scary stuff.

Posted by: huerfano at October 30, 2015 01:14 PM (O2jYw)

148
For people who can stomach a bit of suspense, but think a full-blown horror feature is too much, <i>And Then there were None</i> by Agatha Christie is never particularly intense, but haunts you for quite a while afterwards.

Posted by: CayleyGraph at October 30, 2015 01:15 PM (d10jJ)

149
Nothing really scares me anymore as much as stories/movies of nuclear war.
What DOESN'T scare me these days is movies that think making some really loud noise after it's been quiet is scary. It's just annoying. And too damn common and most often out of context with anything that would have actually made the noise.

Posted by: Burn the Witch at October 30, 2015 01:16 PM (Wckf4)

150
Not a horor film but "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn is scary the first time

151
In case now one's mentioned it, someone posted a link to 'Humper Monkey's Ghost Story' in one of these threads years ago which was a very effective bit of writing (which like most things on the internet probably wasn't, but sould have been true).

Posted by: Methos at October 30, 2015 01:16 PM (ZbV+0)

152
I "got to" see the Exorcist when I was around 12....will NEVER see it again.
Rosemary's Baby too.

154
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 30, 2015 06:11 PM (No/ki)
Oh, I know that. Just happens that the two films have a similar name. And the book "The Haunting of Hill House" has probably one of the greatest opening paragraphs you will ever read.

Posted by: HH at October 30, 2015 01:16 PM (DrCtv)

155
I was 26 or so when I first read Bram Stoker's Dracula and in the part of the book when the passengers aboard the ship taking Dracula to England started disappearing one by one I thought I was going to jump out of my skin the same way the wild crazy wolf-dog was seen to jump off the ship as it ghosted into harbor.
Same feeling a few chapters before that when Jonathan Harker sees Dracula is hanging on the outside of the castle from outside like a lizard.

Posted by: The Cynic at October 30, 2015 01:16 PM (uKJIC)

156
I thought The Exorcist was pretty damn scary, reading it in one night on a business trip, windy outside, cheap motel, Salt Lake City.

Posted by: the littl shyning man at October 30, 2015 01:16 PM (U6f54)

157
HOLY CRAP! Did we make it this far without Silence of the Lambs? I nearly took the seat out of the theater with me for gripping it. Was so tensed up I was sore after.

Posted by: typo dynamofo at October 30, 2015 01:17 PM (ZY2zO)

158
The other thing about Stephen King's books that piss me off, he gets lazy and goes to the same villain all to often.
Space Aliens.
Dood, really?

160
Growing up I listened to the old CBS Radio Mystery Theater episodes on my glistening new Panasonic clock radio. Scared the crap out of me at times. Well, almost.
The one that stuck with me the most was episode #22: Time and Again. A clockmaker discovers a clock that gives him an extra hour each day. There's a cost of having it, of course...

162
Another scary story: Algernon Blackwood's The Wendigo.
His story The Willows is better known, I think, but I didn't think it nearly as eerie as The Wendigo.

Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 30, 2015 01:18 PM (4ErVI)

163
although i did like, kolchak, the night stalker.
darren mcgavin was great.

Posted by: concrete girl at October 30, 2015 01:19 PM (f3K9g)

164
I don't like movies or books with psycho killers. Not because I find them scary in general but because there is a sense of something *unclean*. It takes something particularly nasty to make murder for profit or revenge seem clean and honest in comparison.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at October 30, 2015 01:19 PM (GDulk)

165
There's one story that I can't find the title of or the author but it was one of the most effective stories.

Rural sheriff in the West gets a call about deaths in a mining town in the boonies. He rides out interviews locals to no immediate result.

One interviewer gives him a conflicting statement, a miner, out in the woods. The sheriff goes out to find him, but, of course, finds himself on a table in a hunter's shack.

167
The original Dutch/French film "The Vanishing" is one of the most frightening movies I've ever seen. It came out in the late '80's and has stuck in my head all these years.
Don't confuse it with- and don't bother watching- the American version of "The Vanishing" that came out a few years later - directed by the same guy who made the original. The idiot shit on his own movie - dumbed it down for Americans.

168
andrzej wajda, katyn
you come to love and admire people who are rounded up, taken into a forest, and shot, methodically, like cattle
then you are buried alive with them

Posted by: Feh at October 30, 2015 01:20 PM (Uk9e2)

169
The Shining gave me nightmares - saw it when I was a kid. Mom took us all to the movie because we were camping in Virgina and we needed air conditioning. However, by high school I was a Stephen King book junkie - love all his early books, and yes, The Mist was an excellent short story (a lot of his are - The Mangler, Sometimes The Come Back).

Possession movies like "Paranormal Activity" and "Insidious" really freak me out. Straight-up horror films disturb me because of of the inhumanity, such as the "Hostel" movies (just the thought of people who are torture tourists - ick) and "My Little Eye".

171
Other movie recs:
The Orphanage: really good movie. Very creepy through most of it, but a nice ending that actually made me cry.
Sinister: has a typical dumb horror movie premise, but there are these tapes they play throughout it that are genuinely disturbing.
Trust: not even actually a horror movie, but it is a thriller and horrifying to watch.
Cabin in the Woods: not even really scary but just awesome
Coraline: my childhood favorite

Posted by: stephanie brown at October 30, 2015 01:21 PM (1uMz1)

172
https://screen.yahoo.com/snl-digital-short-mirror-000000079.html
Short films really need to keep the titles to under 5% of the run time. Proportionate to movies. I have seen maybe a thousand animated shorts.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at October 30, 2015 01:21 PM (VdICR)

173
Plan Nine From Outer Space... It was scary to think anyone could make such a bad film..

178
not big on horror movies or the silly slasher flicks but when I was a kid there was a Saturday night creep fest on Channel 4. Hosted by a hoot called Sammy Terry. (youtube that shit, it's hilarious). One night they played a movie called And Now the Screaming Starts. I haven't seen this movie in years but I still vividly remember that disembodied hand.

Posted by: madamemayhem at October 30, 2015 01:22 PM (WPm3x)

179
The book Red Dragon scared the beejezus out of me. I noticed it on the table at my parents' house while I was visiting and about had a heart attack halfway through. The next morning Mom informed me it was left over at the church rummage sale so she brought it home thinking Daddy might like to read a book about China. Neither one of them made it past Ch. 1.

Posted by: the other coyote at October 30, 2015 01:22 PM (yK44T)

180
Funny Games is a movie that'll stay with you. And it is about murder as Ace mentioned in the post.
Watch the original. Same director made an American version that isn't as good.

Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 30, 2015 01:22 PM (4ErVI)

181
The story in the old Boris Karloff movie, Black Sabbath where the lady goes to the house to dress the dead old lady for the funeral freaked me out when I was a kid. I first saw it in black and white on tv. Seeing it later in color is all effed up. Terrible lighting with a lot of red, purple and green lights. Really looks silly.

A cheap 1970s vampire movie, Count Yorga, Vampire had me scared for weeks when I saw it as a kid.

Posted by: Dang at October 30, 2015 01:22 PM (2oWD2)

182163
although i did like, kolchak, the night stalker.
darren mcgavin was great.

184
Strangely or not some of choices above didn't do much for me. Blare Which Project and the Grunge if I remember correctly. I mean a few after seeing them it's like That's It?

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2015 01:22 PM (gE2Li)

185
Also, that scene in Alien when the alien grabs onto John Hurts' spacesuit the first time...i was about 15 or so when the movie came out and the entire theater jumped out of their seats when that alien baby came out the pod & attacked Hurts spacesuit.
Way scarier than when the alien escaped from Hurts body, although the theater went nuts then too. thats how you know a movie kicks ass...when audiences literally scream and jump out of their chairs.

Posted by: The Cynic at October 30, 2015 01:22 PM (uKJIC)

186Did we make it this far without Silence of the Lambs? I nearly took the seat out of the theater with me for gripping it. Was so tensed up I was sore after.
The scene where ol' Bill prances around with his dinger tucked back? Nightmares for over a decade!

187
A couple of people mentioned The Descent. If claustrophobic movies creep you out, that is definitely the movie for you.
And there's always The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon.
https://youtu.be/9VDvgL58h_Y

Posted by: bk in tx at October 30, 2015 01:23 PM (AyAyC)

188
I remember seeing Duel on the ABC movie of the well as a kid. Very intense, and IIRC you never did actually find out who the villain was.
Also Jaws, The Exorcist, The Omen and the end of Carrie.

Posted by: Blano at October 30, 2015 01:23 PM (NHQQx)

189
>>That is a really effective movie, I agree. very chilling with such a simple concept.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor at October 30, 2015 06:14 PM (39g3+)
Something you might find interesting. The story was first published in Playboy magazine. Turns out it was based on an incident that happened to the author while he was driving through N.M.

Posted by: HH at October 30, 2015 01:23 PM (DrCtv)

190
One of the most horrific books I've read is "The Painted Bird" by Jerzy Kozinsky about all of the horrors of war seen by a Jewish boy whose parents abandon him in a rural part of Eastern Europe during and after World War II.There's rape, pillaging, rape, torture, cruelty - it's intense.

Posted by: Lizzy [/i] at October 30, 2015 01:23 PM (NOIQH)

191
First time I watched Walking Dead, I actually had dreams that started normally, but then would be infiltrated by walkers. This happened several times over the ensuing weeks.
But the show has evolved, and I find the interactions with truly bad living people even more jarring. the walkers have become a part of the environment, like the weather. Still dangerous, but manageable for the vigilant.

192
173 Plan Nine From Outer Space... It was scary to think anyone could make such a bad film..
Posted by: donna at October 30, 2015 06:21 PM (/dSsq)
That's the one with a calendar clearly visible in the space craft, right?

Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 30, 2015 01:23 PM (4ErVI)

193
Unsurprisingly, there's an entire sub-genre of horror video games. I haven't played any of the Japanese ones, so I can't comment on them. Unfortunately, most US video games that have horror elements seem to rely on just jump-scares (Doom 3, for instance, despite all of the hype that it received at the time, only really scares you with jump scares). The one notable exception that comes to mind is the first FEAR game. It had a creepy atmosphere, a creepy story, and a character design stolen from The Ring. Unfortunately, the two sequels weren't able to duplicate it.
Ironically, one of the scariest moments in US videogaming is a level in a game that isn't primarily a horror game. The overall plot for Thief: Deadly Shadows does have some horror elements, but they're largely limited in scope (and I won't get into them here because they're all spoilers). But there's That One Level, specifically Shalebridge Cradle...
There's a long article about that level somewhere on the internet. It's a good article.
And just for fun, because it's so unusual...
MMORPGs rarely venture into horror. Scaring people who are going to see the same content over and over can be a bit difficult. But Funcom's "Secret World" is built around the idea.
Final Fantasy XIV is another MMORPG. Unlike Secret World, it doesn't have a horror focus. But it does have a horror dungeon... Upon preparing to enter a very early dungeon for the first time, you're treated to a cutscene showing the aftermath of a previous party that failed to clear the dungeon. Two of the party membrs are complaining about third party member, the healer. Apparently she had trouble healing the party, which got the fourth party member, her fiance, killed. And for some reason she's holding onto his severed head.
Fast forward to much later, when the "Heroic" version of the dungeon was released. Unlike other MMORPG games, "Heroic" dungeons in FFXIV are not just the original dungeon with the difficulty ramped up. Instead, the idea is that time has passed since your party cleared the dungeon, and now there's another threat down there. In this case, one of the surviving members of the aforementioned party approaches you, somewhat concerned. You see, the healer just sent him a wedding invitation...
Cue a very creepy dungeon run.

Posted by: junior at October 30, 2015 01:24 PM (FRGa/)

194
What's funny is Stephen King HATES the movie version of the Shining that Kubrick did, which I would argue was probably the only horror movie of his that was actually good. 99% of the movies that have come from his books were steaming piles of crap.
And get this, the big reason King hates it is because it was misogynist and anti-woman because the Wendy character was helpless. Liberals can never turn off their politics.
Posted by: Coolio at October 30, 2015 06:08 PM (I4PQV)
King's just pissed that the scariest part of the film ("all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy") WASN'T written by him. It's not in the book.

196181
The story in the old Boris Karloff movie, Black Sabbath where the
lady goes to the house to dress the dead old lady for the funeral
freaked me out when I was a kid. I first saw it in black and white on
tv. Seeing it later in color is all effed up. Terrible lighting with a
lot of red, purple and green lights. Really looks silly.

* * *

"A Drop of Water," based on a story by Chekov. She shouldn't have stolen the ring from a dead witch. Freaked me out when I was little, too. Bava did overdo the colors, though.

Posted by: doomed at October 30, 2015 01:24 PM (bGLSw)

197
"Footsteps Invisible" by Robert Arthur, part of a collection titled Literature of the Supernatural. Egyptologist defiles tomb. Spends rest of (abbreviated) life being slowly chased by invisible creature whose form can only be guessed at by its sounds, and effects.
Scared the living crap out of ma as a kid. Haven't re read it in years though. Wonder if it would hold up.

199
-Kairo: Japanese ghost movie from 2001
-Demons (1985): Italian splatter film
-The Beyond (1980): Italian splatter film
-John Carpetner's The Thing (1982)
-Dead and Buried (1981) written by the same guy who wrote Alien
-Reanimator (1984) loosely based on HP Lovecraft
-Dagon: based on HP Lovecraft
-Night of the Creeps

Posted by: Naes at October 30, 2015 01:24 PM (Ypc8j)

200
I'm watching the House on Haunted Hill and reconze it. I had some friends who lived next door. In the movie there are no houses close by but its pretty built up now. Use to walk that are quite a bit especially on warm fall days including Halloween. It's below the Observatory. Thru a bunch of stair cases and squeezing thru gates, you can go all the way up to the Observatory and then to the top of Mt. Hollywood.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 30, 2015 01:25 PM (iQIUe)

201
FelonSpoke.. Wait Until Dark.. a freaking classic. Giving my age away but I saw that when it came out. This guy I knew had been trying for weeks to get me to go out with him. We decided to go see it. The scene where the killer jumps out and grabs her legs? My date literally jumped, threw his head back and hit the brick wall behind us. Nearly knocked himself out. I laughed til I peed my pants.

203
Actually most short stories by M.R. James (all in public domain) are very effective, original ghost stories.

Posted by: Bruce Boehner at October 30, 2015 01:26 PM (E5UB0)

204
"A Drop of Water," based on a story by Chekov. She
shouldn't have stolen the ring from a dead witch. Freaked me out when I
was little, too. Bava did overdo the colors, though.
Posted by: doomed

Good to know - thanks!

Posted by: Dang at October 30, 2015 01:26 PM (2oWD2)

205
My mom and me when I was just a tike waiting for my dad to get home would watch twilight zone and night gallery and I would watch with one eye covered

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2015 01:26 PM (gE2Li)

206
By the time I finally saw The Exorcist, I'd seen and heard so many parodies of it (most memorably by Richard Pryor on a comedy record, and by SNL w/ Richard Pryor as Karras and Laraine Newman as Regan yelling "Your mamma sews socks that smell!") that I just found the whole thing corny.

I think The Exorcist was scariest to people with a Catholic upbringing. I'm not religious at all, so I think I lacked the background to find it truly creepy, or any of the possessed kid's utterances or actions shocking. And the cheesy gross-out effects remind me of Peter Jackson's early work like "Bad Taste" and "Meet the Feebles."

The Omen, OTOH, I still find genuinely creepy.

The Shining movie didn't scare me, but I read the book in my early teens and it creeped me the hell out.

Posted by: Alex at October 30, 2015 01:26 PM (7Yy8M)

207
Forbidden Planet was scary. And I wasnt even sure what I was scared about.

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 30, 2015 01:26 PM (iQIUe)

208darren mcgavin was great.
* * *
"The Zombie" was probably the scariest episode of them all.
Posted by: doomed
Especially when the zombie wakes up while Kolchak is sewing it's mouth shut!

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 30, 2015 01:26 PM (FkBIv)

209
The original Campbell short story "Who Goes There?" that "The Thing" is based on; I read that back in elementary school and was duly freaked out.
I remember one TZ ep called "Will The Real Martian Please Stand Up?", and the end, where the soda jerk takes off his cap, gave me the willies.

214
Lucio Fulci is gross and shocking (especially The Beyond) but not really scary. Still, interesting.

Posted by: Bruce Boehner at October 30, 2015 01:28 PM (E5UB0)

215
"Sinister" was a creepy movie. I just watched "The Den" the other night, and that really wound up the tension, and had a merciless ending.

Posted by: UGAdawg at October 30, 2015 01:28 PM (c+vBe)

216
The scariest ending of any book I ever read was the ending of Pet Sematary (which of course the Hollywood version ruined).
(Spoiler)
In the book, Louis is sitting alone in the dark, waiting for his dead wife to rise from the Indian burial ground and come home, having convinced himself that that she won't Come Back Wrong like his son did, because she hadn't been dead for very long. Finally, he hears the front door open, but he doesn't get up or turn around, just sits there in the dark. until...
"A cold hand fell on Louis's shoulder. Rachel's voice was grating, full of dirt.
'Darling,' it said."
The End
Whereas the schlocky movie ending doesn't leave anything to the imagination: He kisses her and then she stabs him with a knife.

Posted by: Jon at October 30, 2015 01:28 PM (HA+/6)

217
Children of the Corn (original one in the 80's) kinda scared me...a buddy and I were driving home from a friend's house after watching it, past cornfields, freaking out =:O
The Exorcist is still my all time most scary movie...didn't sleep for weeks after.
Evil Dead 1 got under my skin quite a bit too.

Posted by: CanaDave at October 30, 2015 01:28 PM (hZmU4)

218207
Forbidden Planet was scary. And I wasnt even sure what I was scared about.

* * *

Probably that proto-electronic "music" unsettled you?

Posted by: doomed at October 30, 2015 01:29 PM (bGLSw)

219Alfred Hitchcock TV series. All I remember was there was some kind of general store or something with a big counter, and a giant jar of human eyeballs on it.
Posted by: grammie winger, uff da
Are you thinking of this? :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394054/?ref_=fn_ep_tt_1

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 30, 2015 01:29 PM (FkBIv)

220
Thanks for the story, Jewell. That's quite a movie to see for a first date. :^)

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 30, 2015 01:29 PM (No/ki)

221
Another recent movie that stuck with me was, Berberian Sound Studio. Pretty slow, but disturbing in a very different way than you usually see in the movies. I kept thinking about it later. And I liked the symbolism.

Posted by: Dang at October 30, 2015 01:29 PM (2oWD2)

222
Oh ~ and The Telltale Heart (and other Poe creepy stuff).
I find books much scarier, because it tends to be quiet when I'm reading them, so every creak and groan of the house freaks me out... and my mind imagines stuff way worse than the movie scenes.

Posted by: the other coyote at October 30, 2015 01:29 PM (yK44T)

223
Do they still have Hell Night in Detroit? Or did the idiots burn everything down?

Posted by: Bruce With a Wang! at October 30, 2015 01:29 PM (iQIUe)

224
If we're talking scary, then something like Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer scares me because people like Henry really exist.

Posted by: Naes at October 30, 2015 01:30 PM (Ypc8j)

225
>>The original Dutch/French film "The Vanishing" is one of the most frightening movies I've ever seen.

Ugh, yes.

Poe's Tell Tale Heart was scary, so was Mask of the Red Death.

Posted by: Lizzy [/i] at October 30, 2015 01:30 PM (NOIQH)

226
A lot of the In Search Of episodes were scary to me. It was that eerie synthesizer music that did it. The bigfoot episode terrified me.

Posted by: Mark1971 at October 30, 2015 01:30 PM (vaR50)

227
"Let's Go Play at the Adams" was the single darkest book I've ever read, and I read "Blood Meridian" and "Requiem for a Dream".

Posted by: UGAdawg at October 30, 2015 01:30 PM (c+vBe)

228
Also, I don't know if anyone here likes manga, but Junji Ito is pretty much a horror god.

Posted by: stephanie brown at October 30, 2015 01:31 PM (1uMz1)

229
King was very good at creating horror when he was on his game. "It" ended lamely, but there were plenty of truly chilling moments throughout the book. I might read it again to see if it still creeps me out like it did when I was young.

230
The original House on Haunted Hill
You mean the movie with Vincent Price or "The Haunting" with Claire Bloom and the other actress whose name escapes me?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 30, 2015 01:31 PM (No/ki)

231
An interesting one from the early 70s is Tombs of the Blind Dead. Zombie Templar Knights (who had their eyes pecked out by crows) hunt beautiful young people by sound alone. Not particularly scary, but the Blind Dead are pretty creepy and cool.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2015 01:31 PM (o98Jz)

232
Salem's Lot, a made for TV movie, stuck with me for a very long time.
Don't give up on us baby

Posted by: Clarney at October 30, 2015 01:32 PM (caCx2)

233
>>And then there is the music around murder.
Original Dark Shadows. Song freaked me the fuck right out when I was a kid. Still not all that wild about it.

Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2015 01:32 PM (/tuJf)

234
Frankenstein's Army is a really weird, creepy movie.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frankensteins_army/

Posted by: bk in tx at October 30, 2015 01:32 PM (AyAyC)

235
215 The problem with Sinister is when you see the demon Baghul. I laughed out loud in the theater. He looks like he's in the band Slipknot.

Posted by: Naes at October 30, 2015 01:32 PM (Ypc8j)

236
FSpoke... He actually was a nice guy and we dated for a bit but nothing there ya know? Funny how I remember that story.. geez.. seems like another life it was so long ago. I still remember his name believe it or not. I think I was only 14 or 15.

Posted by: jewells45 at October 30, 2015 01:32 PM (5fvBZ)

237
>>>I think The Exorcist was scariest to people with a Catholic upbringing.
Nah, more scary to those who are "Spiritual but dislike organized religion"
Catholics have faith in the Church and Exorcism.

What I found even more surprising then the fact that Willis was dead, was that there was no spoiler alert from anyone I knew. Most popular movies are talked about endlessly and while plenty of people told me it was a good movie, they never ruined the surprise.

Posted by: Cindy Munford at October 30, 2015 01:33 PM (7Lm22)

240
The original Campbell short story "Who Goes There?" that "The Thing" is based on; I read that back in elementary school and was duly freaked out.
Posted by: Mahan at October 30, 2015 06:26 PM (8BD8r)
Yeah, I'd put that one near the top on a list of ten best horror short stories of all time, along with "The Monkey's Paw."

Posted by: Jon at October 30, 2015 01:33 PM (HA+/6)

241
The Devil In The White City by Eric Larsen (book) was really creepy because of the serial murderer H.H. Holmes.

Ya I think that's it! Thanks! What I really liked about Hitchcock and also the Twilight Zone - they could make you quiver and shake and squirm and gasp - and never really show much if any violence. (sorry Janet Leigh)

The Korean kids always talked about a video game "Maple Story" that they liked because it was scary. The kids were younger but I guess there is a need to be safely spooked across cultures.

Posted by: Stateless Infidel at October 30, 2015 01:34 PM (AC0lD)

245
The scariest book I ever read I can't remember the title or author but it was downright scary. Books don't usually scare me but that one did. Sure wish I could remember the name, I would read it again.

Posted by: jewells45 at October 30, 2015 01:34 PM (5fvBZ)

246
I walked out of the Dark Knight after it was over and told my friend I didn't ever want to meet the writers in any dark alleys in my lifetime because they nailed the Joker. Absolutely psychotic. Maybe not scary in Holloween scary, but absolutely psychotic.

Posted by: myoda176 at October 30, 2015 01:34 PM (3WNa7)

247
Posted by: jewells45 at October 30, 2015 06:32 PM (5fvBZ)
It's a great story; He probably remembers it too.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 30, 2015 01:34 PM (No/ki)

248I think The Exorcist was scariest to people with a Catholic upbringing

It's pretty scary for those of us in denominations that don't have trained exorcists.

250
The first horror movie I ever saw was Halloween. I haven't seen it since, so don't know if I would still find it scary, but it was the first movie I ever saw with "startle" scenes, where the villain just popped up. I was scared of the clothesline for weeks afterwards. I was maybe 9 ... my 16 year old sister was supposed to be babysitting and took me to Halloween with her friends, because they wanted to see it. Sheesh.

265
I think The Exorcist was scariest to people with a Catholic upbringing
It's pretty scary for those of us in denominations that don't have trained exorcists.
Posted by: Methos
Lol, us Protestants got shortchanged. Not even Holy Water

Posted by: Coolio at October 30, 2015 01:38 PM (I4PQV)

266
For movies:
"Jacob's Ladder". Prevented me from sleeping properly for a week.
"The Ring" - US version, Japanese is arguably as good or better but the US version has better effects and uses them for one of the best out-of-nowhere gut punches I've ever seen.
"Signs" - hokey, but very effective while I was watching it.
"Noroi: The Curse" - an obscure Japanese picture that is the best found footage horror picture I've ever seen.
"Charlie Victor Romeo" - currently on Netflix. It's a film of an off-broadway play where aircraft emergency voice recorder transcripts are acted out in real time. I watch "Air Crash Investigations" for fun and I was genuinely unnerved for most of it.
"V/H/S" and "V/H/S 2" - collections of found footage shorts. Currently on Netflix. Massively uneven but most people find something to like. I think "Amateur Night" from the first movie is genius.
Books:
Besides seconding "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", I'd recommend "The Lurking Fear" and "The Rats in the Walls" by Lovecraft.
"Hangsaman" and/or "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Shirley Jackson, of "The Lottery" fame. They take a while to get going but get incredibly unsettling.

268
255 Not sure if I would call it scary or edgy but Pan's Labyrinth is a disturbing movie. I think I am twisted in the way del Toro is.
Posted by: JackStraw at October 30, 2015 06:36 PM (/tuJf)
---------------------
Good point. It's some weird combo of disturbing yet beautiful.

Posted by: bk in tx at October 30, 2015 01:39 PM (AyAyC)

269
"Dreams from My Father" scared the crap outta me.
It's a story of a demonically influenced psychopath who becomes the most powerful man in the world and has plans to eliminate millions of people thru warfare, famine and genocide.
I couldn't sleep for weeks.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at October 30, 2015 01:40 PM (ej1L0)

270
As far as movies, Seven had me pretty good. That movie freaked me out. For books, The Alienist, by Caleb Carr was a pretty scary book in a similar vein. It was one of my favorite books of 90's.

271
Blair Witch Project was scary if you ALLOWED it to be scary (suspension of disbelief)

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at October 30, 2015 01:40 PM (h53OH)

272
there's a recurring nightmare I had as a kid that probably came from a movie, but I don't remember the movie.
In the nightmare I am in a dark hallway and in front of me is a rocking chair with a baby doll (one of those bald ones) in it. The chair starts rocking.
Does that sound like a scene from an old movie? Anyone remember it?

273
Another scary movie, AND story/book is something I thought of mostly a childrens genre thing when I was younger.

"Something Wicked This Way Comes." By Ray Bradbury.

For TV delivery, Ray Bradbury theater at 11 on saturday nights was EXCELLENT for the creepy crawly's as was. . . I forget the other show that was on after midnight on fridays. . . Tales from The Dark Side.

276
@127
More likely, Event Horizon borrowed from WH40K, not the other way around. 40K and its definition of "Warp Space" has existed since the early '80s. WH Fantasy Battle is even older, but I don't think "chaos" was mentioned as useful for travel until later editions (with "Slaan Warp Gates" as part of the backstory).

Posted by: junior at October 30, 2015 01:40 PM (FRGa/)

277
I don't want to go see any slasher films or things related to demonic possession so that limits my choices as far as scary movies.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 30, 2015 01:41 PM (No/ki)

278
I've come to detest Stephen King, but I have to admit, "The Stand" (all zillion pages of it) certainly had me on the edge of my seat when I read it in high school.
I've lost my taste for the horror genre though. Reality provides quite enough horror for me now.

283
@258.. what was it about? Maybe the one I read.
Little side note.. I met Kane Hodder who played Jason in several Friday the 13th movies. The guy is hilarious. He could easily do stand up.

Posted by: jewells45 at October 30, 2015 01:41 PM (5fvBZ)

284
Movie? 'Johnie Got His Gun'. If that's not a horror movie, I don 't know what is.

Posted by: Thanatopsis at October 30, 2015 01:43 PM (2MkpH)

285
The Exorcist is so scary to me that I can't even watch the ads. I hate this time of year when it's on TV.
Ace was saying on Twitter that it doesn't scare him because God can beat Satan. But the scary part is the human element -- the idea that our choices lead to letting Satan in. I don't think that being a Believer in God is the main reason why I find the Exorcist (and similar, like The Omen) scary, although I suppose it is a factor.
I don't really like scary movies. Scariest one that I enjoy is Poltergeist, which is not that scary.

Posted by: Y-not at October 30, 2015 01:43 PM (t5zYU)

286Does that sound like a scene from an old movie? Anyone remember it?

289
271
Blair Witch Project was scary if you ALLOWED it to be scary (suspension of disbelief)
Posted by: Comrade Arthur at October 30, 2015 06:40 PM (h53OH)
The movie was ok, but when it came out Sy-Fy ran a special about it called The Curse of the Blair Witch that was positively fucking terrifying. My God one of the scariest things I'd seen. The movie was sort of a letdown after that.

291
'It' had a few passages that kept me from a good sleep. The creepy clown on the cover didn't help any.

Posted by: Huma at October 30, 2015 01:44 PM (BrSVL)

292
Lovecraft with his non-euclidean geometry and nameless horrors sets me on edge. It's the inexorable overtaking of puny humanity and feeling of powerlessness that freaks me out.
The Lovecraft Historical Society's version of The Whisperer in Darkness is nifty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgV9n_y9z1E

293
>>1 Frankenstein did it for me when I was a kid.
Some of the classic Draculas scared me.
Also - bizarrely - the original Planet of the Apes. Gave me nightmares.

Posted by: Y-not at October 30, 2015 01:44 PM (t5zYU)

294
Oh and the Hitchcock movie "The Birds" really scared me when I was little. The thought that the birds I saw every day in the trees or on the telephone lines could suddenly turn vicious and attack people disturbed me immensely.

295
The movie was bad, but the book "Communion" by Whitley Strieber was pretty scary.

Posted by: GBruno at October 30, 2015 01:45 PM (u49WF)

296Blair Witch Project was scary if you ALLOWED it to be scary (suspension of disbelief)

I slept better when I saw the cast doing interviews on the tonight show three weeks later.

I think scary movies with no name actors allow for easier suspension of disbelief.

Posted by: Methos at October 30, 2015 01:45 PM (ZbV+0)

297
'The Monkey's Paw' by Rudyard Kipling, I think? Read that one in 7th or 8th grade English class back '61 or so. That was scary in broad daylight.

Posted by: Eromero at October 30, 2015 01:45 PM (b+df9)

298
>>290 Se7en?
I actually made it through that movie. It was gruesome and depressing, but a different kind of scary from the Exorcist.

Posted by: Y-not at October 30, 2015 01:45 PM (t5zYU)

299
The Audition was really freaky, and the ending was almost too stomach-turning and pycho to make it through. Really psychotic person doing really pychotic stuff.

Posted by: Lem at October 30, 2015 01:46 PM (Jf/2g)

300
285.
I think you almost have to be a Christian to really find the Exorcist scary, because that's part of the religion.
In Muslim cultures, they have Genies in the Koran (sort of like in the lamp kind with Alladin) which is laughable to me but I guess is actually really scary to them.

Posted by: Coolio at October 30, 2015 01:46 PM (I4PQV)

301
Scary?
Alien, the first one where the guy is looking for the cat.
Twilight Zone the tv series, Outer Limits.
Cape Fear, the move. I never got past the intro.
One of the war movies, I forget which one, but they are out on patrol, and you just knew they were about to be ambushed, I couldn't watch it.
I'm a sucker for movies. I'll believe anything, and I marvel at how actors can face a green screen and make me believe. (Susan Sarandon and her conversation with the guild navigator in Dune Messiah.)
Been Obsessively Compulsing over a thing and can't concentrate on Hounds of the Baskervilles and all that 'florid prose'. (Quoting Dr Simon Tam from Serenity.)

Posted by: Hayfield Volkovski at October 30, 2015 01:46 PM (Dru0V)

302
Not one mention of 'The Cask of the Amontillado'?
I'm disappointed...
Probably one of the worst ways to go.

Posted by: junior at October 30, 2015 01:46 PM (FRGa/)

303
Trevanian's book, The Summer of Katya. The ending is classic, and terrifying.

305I don't want to go see any slasher films or things
related to demonic possession so that limits my choices as far as scary
movies.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 30, 2015 06:41 PM (No/ki)

Then give "When a Stranger Calls" the original not the piece of shit remake a try. But seriously, the first half hour or forty minutes will have your hackles hit the ceiling.

22 years ago while in my A-school, on halloween, told the guys to give it a try, 8 Marines watching fangoria flicks used to late 80's "horror" whichwas just gore, and ignoring that old movie mostly in black and white.

After watching it, a buddy Kyle said, "What the fuck did you just do to us?"

Posted by: Wickedpinto at October 30, 2015 01:47 PM (wdvFT)

306
Novel
- The Other by Thomas Tryon
or if you are a man....
- Harvest Home also by Tryon
- Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury
Movies
- Alien - "In space no one can hear you scream"
- When a Stranger Calls
- Phantasm

Posted by: Budahmon at October 30, 2015 01:48 PM (vcSri)

307
285 "Ace was saying on Twitter that it doesn't scare him because God can beat
Satan. But the scary part is the human element -- the idea that our
choices lead to letting Satan in. I don't think that being a Believer in
God is the main reason why I find the Exorcist (and similar, like The
Omen) scary, although I suppose it is a factor."

Based on Merrin's dialogue in the novel, I never took Blatty as saying good winning in the end was a sure bet...something about Teilhard de Chardin's heretical notions of God being fragmented into the whole universe (including Satan and ourselves) at creation, and ever since trying to pull himself back together or something. Point was, good's victory over evil was never quite a sure bet, at least the way I read it. They were elements of the same thing, or something. It's nonsense but I guess that is (or was) possibly Blatty's version of Catholicism.

309
Peter Straus for atmosphere and build up. And lovecraft.
Best horror romance, crime road story book I ever read is called MOJO AND THE PICKLE JAR. Reads like a movie script. Excellent visual descriptions and tight tight pacing. Yes it is a horror romance crime road story. Flat out fun. Set in southwest. Available used on Amazon. No kindle version. Think it might be out of print. I heard someone is sitting on the movie rights.

Posted by: simplemind at October 30, 2015 01:49 PM (BTnAK)

310
HIllary campaign commercials. The thought of her as POTUS scares the crap out of me every time.

314
>>>Neither did I until the end. Then, when you look back at the scene where Willis and the mom are waiting for the kid to get home from school, sitting in the chairs next to each other, and they never say a word to one another. She couldn't see him.
that was brilliant, because I went IN to the movie believing him to be dead. I thought, "Obviously, he is dead; that is the twist; duh, he's a ghost."
However, because he APPEARED to be interacting with the living, the movie tricked me into going back and thinking "Okay, I guess I was wrong, he's alive."
And then they showed, at the end, that my assumptions were all wrong; he may be present in those scenes, but no one actually interacts with him, except the kid.

Posted by: ace at October 30, 2015 01:50 PM (dciA+)

315
When I was a kid/teenager-movies/TV
Ichabod Crane/Headless Horseman cartoon
Wizard of Oz-flying monkeys
Exorcist (I am catholic, so, yes. check.)
The Omen (see above)
Halloween
Clown scene in Poltergeist. Anything having to do with clowns, really.
Books
The Shining-great scary read
The Stand-which still haunts me. As someone said above-the total breakdown of society, Randall Flag and that creepy passage summing up a litany of horrific deaths in the 'second' follow on plague, who died because no one else was around (falling down a well, having a heart attack in broad daylight in a deserted neighborhood) completely freaks me out because it is so believable.

Posted by: Goldilocks at October 30, 2015 01:50 PM (pOgVG)

316
I can't stand Stephen King's politics either, but recently he's done some short story collections. While they're uneven, there are two standouts:
"N", which starts out as a psychologist's notes and then goes somewhere unexpected.
"1408" - skip the movie, but this is IMO one of the best horror short stories ever written.
For video games, the first two "Silent Hill" games are top-notch if you can find them. Also the two "Amnesia" games, with "A Machine for Pigs" being the more frightening one in my experience.

Posted by: SparcVark at October 30, 2015 01:51 PM (YLLI8)

317
Not a big fan of the creepy/slasher type flicks, but the scene in Jaws with the girl in the water scared hell out of me.

318
Posted by: Wickedpinto at October 30, 2015 06:47 PM (wdvFT)
Thanks. Sounds good.
in my ol;d age however, I tend to to stick to things that are funny or inspirational

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at October 30, 2015 01:51 PM (No/ki)

319
I've read a lot of old horror or spooky stories. Interesting thing is that in a lot of the older ones is that the protagonist is wondering "Is this real, or am I going crazy?" type of deal.
Oh, and the best definition between Horror and Terror?
Horror is when you see your best friend being killed and eaten by the monster.
Terror is when you realize that you're next...

Posted by: HH at October 30, 2015 01:51 PM (DrCtv)

320
Phantasm
Posted by: Budahmon at October 30, 2015 06:48 PM (vcSri)
"It's NEVER over"
"Boooyyyyy!"
"You think that when you die you go to Heaven. You come to us."
Big Phantasm fan. Supposedly the fifth film is in the can but distribution is proving a problem. And Coscarelli didn't direct it which worries me.

Posted by: Dack Thrombosis at October 30, 2015 01:51 PM (4ErVI)

321
>>>Not one mention of 'The Cask of the Amontillado'?
Long had I weathered the insults and slights of Fortunado until one day I resolved that I should weather them no more...

322
WASHINGTON -- The White House will try to block the release of a handful of emails between President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, citing longstanding precedent invoked by presidents of both parties to keep presidential communications confidential, officials said Friday.

The State Department discovered the emails between Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton as part of its effort to release the former secretary's emails, several thousand more of which were scheduled to be made public on Friday. Mr. Obama's correspondence was forwarded for review to the White House, which has decided against release.

That decision could intensify the political struggle between Mrs. Clinton, who is running for president, and congressional Republicans, who have pressed for disclosure of her emails as part of an investigation into the administration's handling of the attacks on an American compound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

The contents of the emails between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have not been disclosed, but their presumed existence has not been a secret. The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, acknowledged in March that the two "did have the occasion to email one another" when Mrs. Clinton was serving as the president's top diplomat.

... but Mr. Obama had no idea that Mrs. Clinton had a private email server.

324
Jacob's Ladder
The Ring, which was better and scarier than the Japanese movie it was based on
Event Horizon
Yes, I know this is not the first mention of them.

Posted by: fluffy at October 30, 2015 01:53 PM (DFSWT)

325
I don't like scary stuff so my son sent me the link to The Smiling Man last summer. Scared me silly. Also, 2 sentence horror stories on Reddit. Scared me to tears. My daughter is a teacher and had her kids do this as a Halloween project. She said some of those stories scared her more than anything on the internet.

Posted by: Peggy Coffey at October 30, 2015 01:53 PM (xRA8Q)

326
Not particularly scary (more gruesome) but Poe's HOP-FROG is hands down the best story of revenge, and rather deserved revenge at that, I've ever read.

Posted by: doomed at October 30, 2015 01:53 PM (bGLSw)

327
Sleestaks terrified me when I was little. Will and Holly got captured every time they went into that lost city. But they kept going.

Posted by: Mark1971 at October 30, 2015 01:54 PM (vaR50)

328- Harvest Home also by Tryon
They made a TV movie out of that with Bette Davis.

Posted by: The Original antisocialist-Accept No Substitutes! at October 30, 2015 01:55 PM (eGr8Z)

331
True crime stuff is what scares me the most - anything based on a true story or documentary.
One of the most unsettling books I ever read was called The Shoemaker by Flora Schreiber (same author who wrote Sybil). Based on the killer Joseph Kallinger. It tells the story of his upbringing by adoptive parents and how his mind became so incredibly warped. This is a book that I had to stop reading halfway through because it made me feel so horrible. I had to get out of that world for a while. Finished it about a month later, and have never forgotten it.
There's also an old movie called The Haunting of Julia (full movie can be found on youtube) starring Mia Farrow (I know, I know) that creeped me out pretty good when I was younger. Based on the book Julia by Peter Straub (which I also read and is pretty good). Mia is Julia, a wife and mother, whose daughter dies after choking on an apple, and she then moves into a house that turns out to be haunted. She thinks its the spirit of her daughter, but......
The music in that movie still gives me a creepy vibe when I hear it. It's very 70s, very British, and very good, imo. Tom Conti and Keir Dullea (from 2001) are also in it.

Posted by: tdpwells at October 30, 2015 01:56 PM (evKax)

332
I've lost my taste for the horror genre though. Reality provides quite enough horror for me now.
Posted by: Donna&&&&V. (brandisher of ampersands)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah. Kind of like video games for me. I appreciate experiencing the fun of it earlier, I appreciate the memories, but now I feel like, been there, done that.
To continue consuming regularly would feel like a waste of time, although if something really groundbreaking came along, I might give it a try.

334
Way off topic (like that matters) check out American Thinker and the mutuality assured destruction between Hildabeast and Obozo. Probably the best explanation why Department of injustice will not go after the beast

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2015 01:56 PM (gE2Li)

335
Sleestaks-YES. Holy shit those things were creepy.
And Fembots from the Bionic Woman completely fightened the very young me. When they ripped the faces off-ugh.

Posted by: Goldilocks at October 30, 2015 01:56 PM (pOgVG)

336
Frailty with Bill Paxton. Imagine being a kid and suspecting that your father is a serial killer. The ending kind of unravels a bit, but super creepy.

I've seen them all but this movie really messed with me. It was the complete randomness of the people he killed. Nothing you did put you in an obvious situation where something bad could happen. He just killed whoever he wanted, whenever he wanted. I made me feel like we're never safe or doing the right things to be safe. A guy like Henry felt like killing you, you're dead. Possibly the best murder movie ever made.

339
Oh, and the best definition between Horror and Terror?
Horror is when you see your best friend being killed and eaten by the monster.
Terror is when you realize that you're next...
Posted by: HH at October 30, 2015 06:51 PM (DrCtv)
I like it - stealing that.

Posted by: tdpwells at October 30, 2015 01:57 PM (evKax)

340
Sleestaks terrified me when I was little. Will and
Holly got captured every time they went into that lost city. But they
kept going.Posted by: Mark1971 at October 30, 2015 06:54 PM-----

Chaka no like!

Posted by: Chaka[/i][/b][/u][/s] at October 30, 2015 01:57 PM (7d8Ef)

341
The Strangers is hard to beat, that was some good shit. Looking forward to the sequel. Some others you should check out that I haven't seen mentioned.
1408, Trick R' Treat, The Raven, The Inkeepers, Midnight Meat Train. You might also try the Helix TV series, it's on Netflix.

Posted by: Rastus at October 30, 2015 01:57 PM (VjlMj)

342
The Antigonish poem has always freaked me out a little.
The one that starts out:
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
...
I don't know why. It's actually a silly little poem but maybe it is the triviality that catches me.

Posted by: bananaDream at October 30, 2015 01:57 PM (vLk7c)

343
The most transparent administration ever will NOT release it's emails with Hillary.

Posted by: Nevergiveup at October 30, 2015 01:58 PM (DUoqb)

344
"The Stand". The book. The miniseries was the sh*t back in the '90's, but now it seems pretty tame.

Posted by: The Original antisocialist-Accept No Substitutes! at October 30, 2015 01:58 PM (eGr8Z)

Posted by: The Original antisocialist-Accept No Substitutes! at October 30, 2015 06:55 PM (eGr8Z)

is that the one that is LIKE the newer "The haunting" with that crazy chick who specializes in playing crazy chicks, and people are locked up in the house for the night to prove the paranormal abilities of individuals?

Yeah, the original was much better. The remake played to modern social norms so on the nose it lost it's value.

Another movie, not really scary, but yeah, kinda, had a LOT of dark mood to it, and I think the first use of a computer as a word processor not a magic box for the murder of millions was.

"Prince of Darkness."

Posted by: Wickedpinto at October 30, 2015 01:59 PM (wdvFT)

352
342 The Antigonish poem has always freaked me out a little.
The one that starts out:
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there.
...
I don't know why. It's actually a silly little poem but maybe it is the triviality that catches me.
Posted by: bananaDream at October 30, 2015 06:57 PM (vLk7c)
He wasn't there again today
I wish I wish he'd go away

As a child: Something Wicked This Way Comes and Poltergeist (original, of course). Very, very, scary movies.

As an adult, I made the "mistake" of watching both Hellraiser and Prince of Darkness on Halloween night my freshman year in college. I DID NOT SLEEP A WINK THAT NIGHT. Every time I closed my eyes, I kept seeing either Pinhead or the demonic vision that was shown in Prince of Darkness when the protagonists tried to sleep. Very, very, freaky.

As far as books go, I'd have to toss in the entire Cthulhu Mythos (Lovecraft and all his enthusiastic followers/imitators--some are better than others, of course). Also, Robert Jackson Bennett's American Elsewhere is one of the most mind-bending novels I've ever read (and I've read more than a few). A very strange novel I once read called Golgotha Falls is also worth an honorable mention. Basically, "Christ was defeated at Golgotha Falls" is the tagline. Until <spoiler>the Pope arrives to drive out the Devil</spoiler>. Still pretty wild ride until then...

Posted by: Lord Squirrel at October 30, 2015 02:00 PM (y3dEv)

354
Ok...reading all the comments is creeping me out. Never really thought about how much I absorbed. I avoid most horror now. I'm a puss.
Killer Klowns form Outer Space....yeah it's campy, but those effin clown faces stick with you man!!

358
"The Exorcist". I saw it when I was stationed in England. Slept with the lights on for a week. Also, "'Salem's Lot" was pretty scary for its time.

Posted by: The Original antisocialist-Accept No Substitutes! at October 30, 2015 02:02 PM (eGr8Z)

359
I don't like scary movies. I like raw, brutal, grotesque depictions of reality. With 120 db music.
So my favorite movie of that genre is Transpotting.
Anyone who can make it through the bathroom heroin suppository retrieval scene without hurling has a unique ability to suspend disbelief. Or the opposite. Not sure why I can't figure that out.
Camera angles, actor size... whatever, it's something that shouldn't be described, only viewed. IF, and only IF, one has a strong stomach.

Posted by: se pa moron [/i] at October 30, 2015 02:02 PM (7v/r5)

360
I don't watch slasher or scary movies, just a bit too sensitive I guess.
But I have seen a few and Halloween remains on the top of the list. It had the perfect mix of kids that were just like us, a psycho who could be just like a guy in the newspapers, and music that is tough to top.
and the last 30 minutes of Carrie. Sissy became scary at the end of the movie, but her mother , Piper Laurie, was really scary to me.
By the way, that was Travolta's launch to stardom.

362
I'm pretty old-school: no two movies have scared the living shit out of me more than Alien (I saw it before being spoiled by all the sequels, so everything about it was NEW) and John Carpenter's The Thing.

After all these years, Alien is my favorite film of all time, and I've seen it *easily* 80+ times, know every frame by heart. But I can't bring myself to watch The Thing more than once every ten years or so.

Funny thing is, the most nerve-wracking parts of The Thing aren't the gross-out monster scenes. It's the stuff leading up to that. The paranoid interactions, the alien autopsy scenes, etc.

366
Who remembers Skinny Puppy? They've got a song called Basement that uses dialogue from the old Roddy McDowell movie The Legend of Hell House. It's creepy - I've heard it used outside haunted houses before.

Posted by: tdpwells at October 30, 2015 02:04 PM (evKax)

367
One more - "Sorry, Wrong Number".
It's both a radio play and a movie, I'm almost totally alone in greatly preferring the latter to the former.

371
Also nobody has mentioned The Purge (1 and 2), those are pretty good.

Posted by: Rastus at October 30, 2015 02:06 PM (VjlMj)

372
351 Yeah, that's the one!!
Also - and, yes, I'm kind of hooked on Stephen King - "Needful Things". I kept reading a few pages, then throwing the book under the bed. Then retrieving it, reading a few more pages, then back under the bed it went. I did the same thing with "Cujo".

Posted by: The Original antisocialist-Accept No Substitutes! at October 30, 2015 02:06 PM (eGr8Z)

373
On a more pleasant note, I DVR'd a bunch of Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween specials. I'd forgotten how pitch perfect the show was in its prime. I think I love non-canon Simpsons the best.
Here's a breakdown of the Guillermo del Toro Intro with all the references:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HkuVoUNddY

374
_The_Oculus_ on Netflix is not incredible, but the premise is great--that you can't even trust what you think you're seeing. It's the psych thrillers I like the most.

The scene in M. Night's _Signs_ when he first shows the alien is so well-done. He really had discipline to keep the audience in suspense, then the reveal was on this shaky, grainy home video. Creeped me out.

379
"Bonzo" with Ronald Reagen and a monkey. Scariest movie ever. Maybe the first slasher movie. I affected me as a child and it still does.

Posted by: Lindsey Graham at October 30, 2015 02:08 PM (aRUb8)

380
Ah shoot! I've been looking forward to tonight's Hound thread all week. Won't be home tomorrow night. Don't be changing your mind at the last minute Ace.

Posted by: Tuna at October 30, 2015 02:08 PM (JSovD)

381 "It" ended lamely, but there were plenty of truly chilling moments throughout the book. I might read it again to see if it still creeps me out like it did when I was young.
Posted by: Pug Mahon, Former Blimp Wrangler at October 30, 2015 06:31 PM (RwwCT)
I was reading "It" while babysitting one night, and it scared me so bad I had to go sit on the floor in the bedroom of a sleeping 7 year old.

383376
The first 15 or so minutes of THE FOG, and some non-schlock moments from then on.

Adrienne Barbeau,

Nuff Said.

Posted by: Wickedpinto at October 30, 2015 02:10 PM (wdvFT)

384
Henry: portrait of a serial killer.
I've seen them all but this movie really messed with me. It was the complete randomness of the people he killed. Nothing you did put you in an obvious situation where something bad could happen. He just killed whoever he wanted, whenever he wanted. I made me feel like we're never safe or doing the right things to be safe. A guy like Henry felt like killing you, you're dead. Possibly the best murder movie ever made.
Posted by: Does this leg smell gammy? at October 30, 2015 06:57 PM (s4mMJ)
OMG, yes, that movie was incredibly horrifying for exactly the reasons you stated.
Any true crime/serial killer thing horrifies me. I am still a bit p.o.ed at Maet for linking to a site which featured photos of murder victims right before their deaths. The photos were taken by their murderers. Once seen, they cannot be unseen. And they haunted me.
It reminded me of what my dad said to me once when I was a kid and we were visiting his parents' graves. I said I didn't like going to the cemetery because dead people scared me. He said, "Kid, believe me, it's not the dead who will hurt you, it's the living you have to watch out for."

385
360 When "Halloween" came out on video, I was stationed on Okinawa. VCR's were kind of new technology, we got movies faster over there than they did in the states. My boyfriend borrowed a copy of "Halloween", and DEMANDED that I sit through it with him without cowering. I tried. Still can't watch it to this day.

Posted by: The Original antisocialist-Accept No Substitutes! at October 30, 2015 02:10 PM (eGr8Z)

386
The Shining. Hands down. Both book and movie. Although the book gave me nightmares for months.

Posted by: Fen at October 30, 2015 02:10 PM (LzTHP)

387
Several of the original Outer Limits episodes scare me so bad I won't ever rewatch them. The music for the series is brilliantly terrifying.

389379
"Bonzo" with Ronald Reagen and a monkey. Scariest movie ever. Maybe the
first slasher movie. I affected me as a child and it still does.

Posted by: Lindsey Graham at October 30, 2015 07:08 PM (aRUb

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Don't you mean "Bedtime For Bonzo"? If so, I agree..it still scares the crap out of me.

Posted by: John McCain at October 30, 2015 02:11 PM (aRUb8)

390
Ah shoot! I've been looking forward to tonight's Hound thread all week. Don't be changing your mind at the last minute Ace.

Posted by: Tuna at October 30, 2015 02:11 PM (JSovD)

391
I've been immersed in horror for most of my life and so have much of it (unwillingly) categorized in my head. But the biggest unexpected jaw-drop I can recall is the kid's last line of this old radio show with Vincent Price called FUGUE IN C MINOR. I was driving when I heard it and think I actually wept in shock.

http://www.tangentonline.com/old-time-radio/1162-fugue-in-c-minor

Posted by: doomed at October 30, 2015 02:11 PM (bGLSw)

392
The radio version of war of the worlds is pretty fantastic. Worth getting from the library. Very well done.you can see how people freaked out.

Posted by: simplemind at October 30, 2015 02:12 PM (BTnAK)

393
Several of the original Outer Limits episodes scare
me so bad I won't ever rewatch them. The music for the series is
brilliantly terrifying.

394
Not really horror per se. But when you start to realize how Ruin can affect people in Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy...

Posted by: junior at October 30, 2015 02:13 PM (FRGa/)

395
385 360 When "Halloween" came out on video, I was stationed on Okinawa. VCR's were kind of new technology, we got movies faster over there than they did in the states. My boyfriend borrowed a copy of "Halloween", and DEMANDED that I sit through it with him without cowering. I tried. Still can't watch it to this day.
Posted by: The Original antisocialist-Accept No Substitutes! at October 30, 2015 07:10 PM (eGr8Z)
---
Saw it with a bunch of yahoos in C school. One nervous nellie kept shrieking at the Gotcha! scenes. His roommate hid under his bed and grabbed him when the lights went out, and we heard Nellie's blood -curdling scream pierce the cold still night air.

396
It reminded me of what my dad said to me once when I was a kid and we were visiting his parents' graves. I said I didn't like going to the cemetery because dead people scared me. He said, "Kid, believe me, it's not the dead who will hurt you, it's the living you have to watch out for."
Posted by: Donna&&&&V. (brandisher of ampersands) at October 30, 2015 07:10 PM (P8951)
My grandpa tried to make me less afraid of the dark by telling me that the dark was my friend - bad guys can't see me in the dark. But gramps, I can't see them, either!
I'm nearly 40 and I still will not linger for too long by the side of my bed before hopping in it. Also can't have a cracked closet door - either entirely shut or wide open. I literally carry around the fears of a 10 year old.

Posted by: tdpwells at October 30, 2015 02:14 PM (evKax)

397
>>I've been immersed in horror for most of my life and so have much of it (unwillingly) categorized in my head. But the biggest unexpected jaw-drop I can recall is the kid's last line of this old radio show with Vincent Price called FUGUE IN C MINOR. I was driving when I heard it and think I actually wept in shock.
Yea, I'm not listening to that. I don't need to weep in shock.

402
Stephen King's secret is to write about the mundane horror everyone experiences at some point in their life. The monster under the bed, that thing that went bump in the night, that strange shape in the dark just outside your door.

Posted by: Fen at October 30, 2015 02:17 PM (LzTHP)

403
Posted by: doomed at October 30, 2015 07:11 PM (bGLSw)
I once heard a radio drama about a dentist who somehow manages to get his wife's lover drugged up and in the dentist's chair. The last thing you hear is the drill....
I was always nice to dentists after that.

I once heard a radio drama about a dentist who somehow manages to
get his wife's lover drugged up and in the dentist's chair. The last
thing you hear is the drill....

I was always nice to dentists after that.

* * *

Old time radio horror, done right, cannot be beaten by any film. The mind does all the work, against your will. There's one somewhere (Lights Out, maybe) about a fog that turns people inside out. And the story that Bill Cosby based his Chicken Heart routine on is actually creepy as all get out.

Posted by: doomed at October 30, 2015 02:19 PM (bGLSw)

409
I read Carrie when I was about 9. It scared me terribly. I was too young to read that book then.

Posted by: CaliGirl at October 30, 2015 07:18 PM (BHl9S)

==========================================

I had never read Stephen King before. I read the first chapter of that book, put it down, and have never read a book by Stephen King since. I wasn't scared. I just thought it was gross and kind of silly.

410
387 Several of the original Outer Limits episodes scare me so bad I won't ever rewatch them. The music for the series is brilliantly terrifying.
Posted by: gp at October 30, 2015 07:10 PM (mk9aG)
---
The one -- "Feasibility Study"? -- wherein a man is transformed into an alien so that global tensions can be redirected at a phony space invasion scared the crap out of me.
The Andromeda Strain's realistic (to Kid Me) scenario really scared me too.

411
The War of the World movie had me searching the night sky's all the time as a kid. Having to drive on long trips I would find a plane and watch it a long time thinking it was a UFO

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2015 02:22 PM (gE2Li)

412
A really creepy movie is "The Skin I Live In" with Antonio Banderas. It's about a plastic surgeon who holds the young mane who killed his daughter hostage and then....well, it's just c-r-e-e-p-y.

Posted by: Lizzy [/i] at October 30, 2015 02:22 PM (NOIQH)

413
Oh
The Wizard of Oz.
When I was very little, my parents took me to the theater. When the witch was sending out the flying monkeys to get Dorothy, I was terrified. I've always hated that movie.
Jumanji was pretty scary for a 'kids' movie.

Posted by: Hayfield Volkovski at October 30, 2015 02:22 PM (Dru0V)

414
Posted by: Fen at October 30, 2015 07:17 PM (LzTHP)
And he really knows how to fuck with you, too. Pet Semetary was heartbreaking as well as scary because he knew exactly how to destroy you emotionally.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2015 02:23 PM (JqEq4)

415
I found Ex Machina (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0470752/) pretty unsettling. It's a sci-fi movie, but they do a good job of making it believable.

Posted by: Caleb at October 30, 2015 02:23 PM (uMvmH)

416
The one -- "Feasibility Study"? -- wherein a man is transformed into an
alien so that global tensions can be redirected at a phony space
invasion scared the crap out of me.

* * *

"Architects of Fear," with Robert Culp drawing the short straw.

Posted by: doomed at October 30, 2015 02:24 PM (bGLSw)

417
Hope the thread's not dead.
I know it's an unpopular opinion to have, but I think "The Blair Witch Project" is actually scary.
Of course, I like to call it the '2001' of horror movies: you get out of it what you bring to it. If you expect something great, you get something close to that. If you expect something mediocre...

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 02:24 PM (ntObR)

418
I have never seen it, only screenshots, and short scenes, but I have heard that "Eyes Without a Face" is basically The TITS for fangoria without goria.

422
My daughter was 16 when Blair Witch Project came out and begged me to take her because she wasn't yet 17 so couldn't go on her own, or even with her friends. It remains one of the scariest movies I've ever seen, mainly because I suspended disbelief and put myself in the shoes of the characters.
The dude standing facing the corner at the end just shook me way more than it should have.

427
I love the old stuff - "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" will give you the creeps.

Posted by: 2nd Amemdment Mother at October 30, 2015 02:26 PM (YiRka)

428
Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The early 1970s one. It was as scary as it was sickening.

I'm still terrified of The Exorcist. I vowed to never watch it again. Ringu is very scary. If you don't mind subtitles, it's definitely worth the watch.

As far as books, I get more scared by biographical ones dealing with murderers. When I was in my late teens, I read Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me about Ted Bundy. The descriptions of how he snuck into girls' rooms and caved their heads in with baseball bats while they slept was terrifying.

Posted by: Lady in Black...sigh at October 30, 2015 02:27 PM (pVkEV)

429
I love Poltergeist, but not because I consider it scary.
I consider it hilarious. And it's a great primer on baby boomer stupidity.

431
Blair Witch Project, I'm not supporting the movie, but I will say that my experience watching it in the theater was a very good one. The gimmick worked for me because I watched it clean, I didn'tknow anything about it, didn't read anything didn't hear anything.

I had just come back from a 9 week training rotation (I volunteered for everything) so I didn't know ANYTHING about it.

When I came back from the field I had enough time to ask my roommate what the hell he did to my car, take a shower, ask him again what the hell he did to my car, then for him to pay the bill for our night of skanking, but first we go see this movie he heard about.

Blair Witch Project, first time I heard about it was on the way to go see it.

433
Anyone here seen "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer"???
Just got it on bluray. It *is* scary, if only for the fact that we learn at the end... Henry's not redeemable.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 02:28 PM (ntObR)

434
>>>179Red Dragon is my favorite book. Big Will Graham fan, the first appearance of Hannibal Lecter and a fantastic criminal procedural. Manhunter was the best adaption.

Posted by: Saltydonnie at October 30, 2015 02:28 PM (qfsap)

435
Two of the movies I found very scary were the original version of The Haunting and the first Alien movie.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at October 30, 2015 02:29 PM (B8JRQ)

436
Skip, true.
One thing that added to the horror at the beginning of the Blair Witch Project mania, at the very beginning, is that people believed it was an *actual documentary.*
I actually had to convince a co-worker at the time that it wasn't.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 02:30 PM (ntObR)

437
I thought Blair Witch was good, too! And Paranormal Activity, I think someone mentioned it upthread. The Ring scared me, too, and don't you know the gawt damned phone rang immediately Fuck.
Speaking of Blair Witch, there was a funny hysterical naughty movie made called Bare Wench Project that spoofed it.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2015 02:31 PM (JqEq4)

438
The Silent Partner with Elliot Gould and Christopher Plummer is that rare thing: a genuinely frightening crime flick.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2015 02:32 PM (o98Jz)

439
On my bluray wish list:
Misery
The Conjuring (thanks for backing me up Ace)
...oh, and I know there are probably people here who've seen it and hated it... but the French flick that came out a few years ago, "Rubber," is a great *deconstruction* of horror movies IMHO. Also, it was shot entirely in the Mojave desert.

441
Just remembered a Australian movie but don't remember the exact title. Girl is killed on a outback trip and family tries to find out why. But doing that the son is setting up ghost warnings. It's made like a documentary but looking into it it's just a story.

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2015 02:33 PM (gE2Li)

442
wickedpinto is here and no one else seems to be as giddy as me.
OMG, I had forgotten about Texas Chainsaw. That was horrifying.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2015 02:33 PM (JqEq4)

443
Yes, on "Eyes Without a Face". Very creepy- the juxtaposition of her princessy rooms with the lab downstairs.
The banshee in "Darby O'Gill and the LIttle People"had me down on the jujube-covered theater floor, as a kid.
Also, Twilight Zone's "Eye of the Beholder".
Someone mentioned Jame's short stories: "Oh Whistle and I'll Come to You". Damn.

Posted by: Sal at October 30, 2015 02:33 PM (MRX6w)

444
Another very interesting French import, that works at being quite suspenseful, if only a little bit scary:
"Cache," directed by Michael Haneke. About a family that keeps getting... disturbing... drawings in the mail, as well as VHS videotapes of themselves doing various ordinary things in the past. It *is* creepy at least.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 02:34 PM (ntObR)

445
441: Could it be "Picnic at Hanging Rock"? Great movie either way. That and "The Last Wave" would both be good additions to the list.

Oh, yes. And it's horrifying. As someone upthread mentioned, the randomness is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Posted by: Lady in Black...sigh at October 30, 2015 02:34 PM (pVkEV)

447
Also, "Picnic at Hanging Rock" works as a creepy movie IMHO.
Love that Peter Weir had the guts to literally leave the audience completely hanging, in that it's a film that has *no* ending. And the last couple scenes... yeesh.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 02:35 PM (ntObR)

448
445 441: Could it be "Picnic at Hanging Rock"? Great movie either way. That and "The Last Wave" would both be good additions to the list.
Posted by: SparcVark at October 30, 2015 07:34 PM (YLLI
---
Loved these films. Very unsettling.

449
In my comment about the naughty movie, I meant to delete hysterical. It's cute-stupid funny, not real humor funny.
Also, Thor feels I should mention it's soft core, not the real deal, lest some of you be disappointed.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2015 02:36 PM (JqEq4)

450
I've never been much of a fiction reader, but I remember reading a collection of horror short stories in grade school. The only one that really knocked me out at the time, and has stuck with me all these years was one called "Wide O--". I don't remember the author's name.
It was only two pages long. It was written in the first person about a woman living by herself. She's heard about an escaped murderer or mental patient in the area, and sets about making sure all her doors and windows are locked. Still, she feels an inescapable chill...

452
The Cube was ok, although it was more sci fi than horror. Still, a pretty scary concept, in a paranoid kind of a way.

Posted by: Bruce Boehner at October 30, 2015 02:36 PM (E5UB0)

453
SparcVark, was thinking the same thing.
PAHR takes place in 1901, about a group of very young and attractive girls who completely disappear on a mountain trip.
Then one of them is finally found... and she remembers absolutely nothing. Talk about frustrating.

467
I still get a bit wigged out at The Amityville Horror. Anything that involves demons or the devil is freaky.

Posted by: Lady in Black...sigh at October 30, 2015 02:43 PM (pVkEV)

468
The Exorcist and The Haunting both got to me. Oh, and The Thing. Saw the first Alien when it came out and was totally expecting it to be hiding in the back seat when I got in the car to go home.

Stephen King is extremely annoying now, but Salem's Lot scared me when I was younger. Pet Sematary was scary, but in ... a different way.

I love Shirley Jackson, and The Haunting of Hill House is superb. Her essays on family life are fantastically funny, too.

For those who like "classic" ghost stories, there's Russell Kirk, who was an influential conservative back in the day. Very good, and with subtle morals.

October, for me, is for rereading Ray Bradbury and Roger Zelazny's spectacular A Night in the Lonesome October, which features a number of legendary monsters from books and films in a lighthearted novel.

Posted by: RovingCopyEditor at October 30, 2015 02:43 PM (/S5ss)

469
I know that among AOS readers, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" holds the title of best horror story ever (more or less).
Wish a movie could be done of it, but it's too short and Hollywood would probably mess it up.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 02:44 PM (ntObR)

470
The Amityville Horror and The Entity scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid.

Posted by: no good deed at October 30, 2015 02:44 PM (GgxVX)

471
Movies that I admit I *don't want* to see:
The Exorcist
Rosemary's Baby
Amityville Horror
...I admit I have OCD, and don't want to find anything from these flicks stuck on constant repeat in my head.

473
I didn't see "Rosemary's Baby" until many years after it came out. Yes, it was very atmospheric; however, I had read the Mad Magazine parody when I was a kid, which knocked the wind out of it somewhat.
I do remember being at a ball game in 1968 or thereabouts when the movie came out, and seeing a plane towing a banner that said "Pray for Rosemary's Baby".

Posted by: rickl at October 30, 2015 02:45 PM (sdi6R)

474
One of the great horror movies of the past 30 years....
Forrest Gump.
The evil succubus Jenny keeps coming back into Forrest's life to tear his heart apart, then leaves him in despair. Only to do it again a few years later. And again. And again.....

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at October 30, 2015 02:46 PM (o98Jz)

475
This thread is deader than a skeleton jumping out of a closet, but I'll add my two cents anyway:
Although it may not be the scariest movie overall, the 1946 film Dead of Night is as close to being the most "perfect" horror film ever made. Every single second of film, from the very very first frame to the very very last frame are essential for understanding the all-time-classic plot twist (which I will not give away). It's actually a meta-film enclosing six smaller films, each in the form of a "ghost story" told by people at a party. And five of those six film-within-a-film stories are themselves all-time classics, and were the basis for countless copycat films in the subsequent decades.
(The odd-man-out sixth story is Dead of Night's one and only weak point -- a comic ghost story about two golfers that was only put into the film as a way to get a comedian duo who were popular at the time into the film; but their story is neither funny nor scary. Aside from the brief flaw, the overall movie is flawless.)
Basically,Dead of Night is the Ur-film of the horror genre and a must-see for anyone who cares about these things. And if you do watch it, MAKE SURE that you start at the very very beginning and watch to the very very end. I guarantee you will get chills!

477
443 TZ's Eye of the Beholder gave me nightmares when I was a kid. Those pig-faced bastards were chasing me all over the place.

Posted by: bk in tx at October 30, 2015 02:46 PM (AyAyC)

478469 I know that among AOS readers, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" holds the title of best horror story ever (more or less).
Wish a movie could be done of it, but it's too short and Hollywood would probably mess it up.
Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 07:44 PM (ntObR)
I remember seeing a short film of it in school.

Posted by: rickl at October 30, 2015 02:47 PM (sdi6R)

479
I know "Insiduous" from a few years ago is supposed to be profoundly creepy.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 02:47 PM (ntObR)

480
And I like "The Sixth Sense" a lot... but it's not scary.
IMHO it should be called drama with elements of horror.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 02:48 PM (ntObR)

481
rickl, still remember seeing the animated version of "Animal Farm" in high school.
I remember it left me depressed.

485
I also still remember the furor over movie violence when "The Hitcher" came out in 1987.
Everyone kept citing a scene where a chopped-off finger ends up getting fried and eaten by someone else.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 02:51 PM (ntObR)

486
>>I know "Insiduous" from a few years ago is supposed to be profoundly creepy.

It was. Ever watch a movie/tv show about a haunted house and get frustrated the people don't just move out? Yeah, in Insidious they do...and it follows them.

Posted by: Lizzy [/i] at October 30, 2015 02:51 PM (NOIQH)

487
Red Dragon will scare the shit out of you.
The movies were nothing compared to the book.

Posted by: Lance de Boyle at October 30, 2015 02:53 PM (Vwb3R)

488
Lizzy, yikes. :-)
I know that some of the people who helped write/produce Insiduous also helped with The Conjuring, which is supposedly a pro-Christian film.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 02:53 PM (ntObR)

489
As far as films that permanently scared me and ruined my life, I guess I'd had to put the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which I saw in the "director's cut" WITHOUT the reassuring prologue and epilogue, at the top of the list.
Seen in its original intended raw form, it reprograms your brain into permanent "paranoia mode."

492
1970s British series BEASTS has some very well acted and creepy stuff. Check out THE DUMMY, it's on YT.

Posted by: doomed at October 30, 2015 02:57 PM (bGLSw)

493
Oh jeez, is Willard the one where the guy lives in their basement?

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2015 02:58 PM (JqEq4)

494
I see Campbell's story "Who goes there" has been mentioned a couple of times . . . add my vote for scariest story I've ever read. Lovecraft's "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family" is pretty creepy too, but not in the same class of creepyness.

496
Tammy, as I recall, Willard (starring a then-young Bruce Davison) is the one about a bullied nerd who finds he can communicate with, and send on deadly missions, the thousands of rats living in his decrepit mansion.
Michael Jackson did the theme for its sequel, "Ben."

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 03:00 PM (ntObR)

497
...is that the one about some guy who finds covered up footage of Aborigines who got nuked or something??
Posted by: doomed at October 30, 2015 07:38 PM (bGLSw)
No, different film although I know the film you are talking about but can't remember the name of it. Great opening of that film, which looks like astronauts on the moon digging up some sort of spaceship, which turns out to be an airplane which is radioactive as hell. Plus a skull with a bullet hole.

Posted by: HH at October 30, 2015 03:01 PM (DrCtv)

498
As far as the scariest short story, my vote goes with "August Heat," written by W.F. Harvey in 1910.
Over a hundred years old and still enough to scare the wits out of you!
The ultimate "atmospheric" horror story -- nothing happens except inescapable soul-crushing dread.

Posted by: zombie at October 30, 2015 03:03 PM (jBuUi)

499
I ask my cats when their sitting seaming looking at the paper trying to read if their learning like Ben

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2015 03:03 PM (gE2Li)

500
I had the absolute *stuff* scared out of me at the age of about ten or eleven, on watching The Fall of the House of Usher -- one of those 1930s black and white horror flicks. I had nightmares for years afterwards, and finished up absolutely hating horror movies and written horror stuff for ever afterwards. No -- don't appreciate even finely -written scary stuff, let alone the sensationally gory. Just don't. My imagination is quite finely-tuned as it is.
My younger sister was traumatized by watching an old WWII adventure flick - No Man is an Island, which was screened at our junior high theater as part of a summer movie program or some such in the late 1960s. The scene of ocean crabs scarfing down on a dead body was the trigger for her. Screaming nightmares resulted, and so Mom put her foot down for all of us.

501489 As far as films that permanently scared me and ruined my life, I guess I'd had to put the original 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which I saw in the "director's cut" WITHOUT the reassuring prologue and epilogue, at the top of the list.
Seen in its original intended raw form, it reprograms your brain into permanent "paranoia mode."
Posted by: zombie at October 30, 2015 07:53 PM (jBuUi)
I never saw the director's cut, but even in its usual form it's one of the great sci-fi/horror films of all time. I really liked the 1978 remake as well. A case where the original and remake were both good, and stand on their own.
Speaking of Donald Sutherland, his "Don't Look Back" from about 1975 or so was also excellent. I saw it in college.
I may or may not have been tripping. Let's go with "may". The movie is pretty trippy on its own.

Posted by: rickl at October 30, 2015 03:06 PM (sdi6R)

502
The movie that has haunted me for decades is the French/Dutch movie The Vanishing. I can still picture the villain and the horror of what he did -- but you don't see one drop of blood shed on the screen.
An American version was made later but it doesn't compare. Seek out this specific movie -- and it will haunt you too. Here is the wiki link for more info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vanishing_(1988_film)

Posted by: Loretta at October 30, 2015 03:06 PM (1XRE+)

503
I have it on good authority that the book "The Great God Pan" by Aurthru Machen is, according to several of the Horror fiction greats (Steven King, H.P. Lovecraft), the scariest book ever written. It's on Kindle for $0.99.

Posted by: TheOtherJay at October 30, 2015 03:07 PM (nojhZ)

504502 The movie that has haunted me for decades is the French/Dutch movie The Vanishing. I can still picture the villain and the horror of what he did -- but you don't see one drop of blood shed on the screen.
An American version was made later but it doesn't compare. Seek out this specific movie -- and it will haunt you too. Here is the wiki link for more info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vanishing_(1988_film)
Posted by: Lorett
Agreed - - the Dutch original "The Vanishing" is a masterpiece.

506
I haven't watched a 'horror' movie in a long time. The slasher stuff and other gory movies aren't scary, just disgusting. It's the movies like "Wait Until Dark" with the never ending tension and sense of helplessness for Audrey Hepburn that scared the crap out of the audience. Sitting in the dark theater when the guy jumps out at her, NOBODY kept their butt on the seat. There might have been some soundtrack for that scene but you couldn't hear it for all the females screaming.

Posted by: JTB at October 30, 2015 03:10 PM (FvdPb)

507
Never saw The Ring, but the Ringu cassette had to go out on the porch until I returned it, and for weeks I averted my eyes from the tv if it was off and I was alone.

The voodoo priest in True Believers who could roll his eyes till only the whites showed and pull a beating heart from a person's chest also spooked me.

As a Catholic, I found Exorcist kind of hokey, but a more recent case of possession in Gary, IN in 2011 sounded seriously disturbing. A local dj had the priest who performed the exorcisms and other people involved on the radio this morning.

Posted by: venus velvet at October 30, 2015 03:10 PM (g94P/)

508
Okay, not Willard.
There was some movie from about the same time frame where a family moves into a house and doesn't realize a guy is still living in it.
I have no idea if it was even meant to be a horror movie, but it scared me no end.

That was a DAMN FINE movie. The acting was perfect, and it had all of that strange intrusion of madness you get from stuff like naked lunch, that horrible Jude Law movie, and of course "Videodrome."

And Wickedpinto ain't what he used to be doll, ain't nothing special.

As far as Rosemary's baby, I got a story for that.

My mother is named Rose and Mary, and while pregnant with my big brother my uncle, took her to see that movie 2 months before she gave birth. My mom joked about how my uncle joked about how rosemary is having a baby and mom said "I did, but 6 years later" (me)

Posted by: Wickedpinto at October 30, 2015 03:13 PM (wdvFT)

510
Oh, and what was the one where the call is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE??
That really was awful.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2015 03:13 PM (JqEq4)

511501
Speaking of Donald Sutherland, his "Don't Look Back" from about 1975 or so was also excellent. I saw it in college.
Posted by: rickl at October 30, 2015 08:06 PM (sdi6R)
Oops. The Sutherland horror movie was called "Don't look Now".
"Don't Look Back" was a documentary about Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England. Lol.

That's what he looks like, there is a documentary about it, a short one, and it's glammed up but the only thing constant is "other than the teeth that's what he fucking looked like.

Posted by: Wickedpinto at October 30, 2015 03:14 PM (wdvFT)

513And Wickedpinto ain't what he used to be doll, ain't nothing special.
Oh bullshit. These here peeps are mostly newbs, and don't realize they are in the presence of Greatness.
Welcome back!

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2015 03:15 PM (JqEq4)

514
Anybody else here besides me, ever seen a TV movie that came out in 1981 called "Dark Night of the Scarecrow"??
It's basically a family horror film; has scares but also laughs, and was produced by the same team that made Audrey Rose. It starred the same guy who played a developmentally-disabed adult in "L.A. Law" a few years later.
I actually have that on video too.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 03:15 PM (ntObR)

515510
Oh, and what was the one where the call is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE??

That really was awful.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2015 08:13 PM (JqEq4)

When a STranger calls. the most terrifying suspenseful movie ever.

Watch it again knowing the hook, and you will still have all your muscles taught.

That's What I been Preaching Tammy.

Posted by: Wickedpinto at October 30, 2015 03:16 PM (wdvFT)

516
Years ago when our family had SelecTV, I tried to watch this Roger Corman horror flick.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081184/
Still don't know whether I should try to finish it or not.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 03:17 PM (ntObR)

517
Anybody here ever watch The King of Queens?
They actually did a funny episode where Doug (Kevin James) is being stalked, but he can't figure out who's doing it, except that they have something to do with the karaoke bar he's been going to.
It turns out to be Spence (Patton Oswalt), and the 'big reveal' is also funny.

519
I know Pinto. Keep lurking on the wicked thread for some reason. Halloween? Hate this shit but can't unsee it.
Maybe hate is too strong.

Posted by: Clarney at October 30, 2015 03:22 PM (caCx2)

520
Speaking of murder, as a teen I thought The Deliberate Stranger, the TV movie about Ted Bundy, was scary in its own way.

Posted by: logprof at October 30, 2015 03:23 PM (vsbNu)

521
I am loving all the lurkers /infrequent commenters coming out!
I know, I know, phrasing...
And apparently no Series thread again.

Posted by: Tammy al-Thor at October 30, 2015 03:24 PM (JqEq4)

522
Oh, and what was the one where the call is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE??
Black Christmas?

Posted by: HH at October 30, 2015 03:24 PM (DrCtv)

523
logprof, was recently reading about Bundy.
A lot of folks don't know, he wasn't done with the women when he murdered them and dumped their bodies in the woods. He'd keep coming back to... have even more fun with them, so to speak.
Cree. Py.

Posted by: qdpsteve at October 30, 2015 03:26 PM (ntObR)

524
qdpsteve...l love that episode. Also dig the "Raymond" episode when he's home alone....talking doll left in the bed.

Posted by: Clarney at October 30, 2015 03:28 PM (caCx2)

525
Movie: Dont' know if it's the scariest, but by far the most disgusting has to be The Human Centipede. By far. AND IT HAD A SEQUEL.
Book: The Mist by King STILL scares the bejeebus out of me. I hate foggy days now.

540
Hey, Ace! I just wanted to say thanks for putting up that "recommendations" post last week and talking about that Michel homme's language study method. I didn't end up buying one of his products, but I did get Living Language: Japanese, which I remember wanting about twenty years ago when it was more expensive and I was dirt-poor. Amazon has it for like $36 new nowadays.

I tried doing some self-study of the language back then, but I made the mistake of going too quickly. I learned over 400 kanji in one week and burned myself out. I've thought off and on about taking the language up again since then, and your thread gave me the little push I needed. Thanks!

I also bought AnnaPuma's novel Golden Isis while I was at it. If I used the site correctly, you should've gotten a cut of the action, too. I was pretty excited to see my new stuff had arrived today!

I got out of the car to hang at the playground viewing section with my brother at the drive in when it came out. We walked away from the movies we were supposed to watch, and snuck in to watch Cat People.

550
They should show both versions
Don't see Rocky horror picture show on anywhere tomorrow

Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2015 03:47 PM (gE2Li)

551
because it wasn't a horror flick, it was a sexual exploration in the deconstructive era using horror movie tropes Skip

Posted by: Wickedpinto at October 30, 2015 03:53 PM (wdvFT)

552550
Don't see Rocky horror picture show on anywhere tomorrow
Posted by: Skip at October 30, 2015 08:47 PM (gE2Li)
At Neo-Neocon, the commenter Artfldgr once said that Rocky Horror Picture Show was actually an allegory for the Frankfurt School's "long march through the institutions".
It sounds completely demented, but not so much if you really think about it.
Now that's scary.

559
The movie that scared me when I was a kid, was the original 'The Haunting', all my friends were terrified by 'The Exorcist' which was the stupidest movie I had ever seen, really. Poltergeist was a good one, scared the stuffings out of my kids...(me too).

I don't watch horror flix because all the blood and gore annoys me. Although I like sci-fi, 'Alien' was a good one. More recently 'The Road' book (excellent writing) and movie was the most disturbing story ever, it spun my head around in weird ways.

I wish Hollywood would get over the overly FXed, crapola they put out, and realize, that sometimes frightening things can be implied and don't have to be so graphic.

Posted by: Kay at October 30, 2015 04:39 PM (SjUvB)

560
Fun fact: the author of House of Leaves is the brother of Poe, and her awesome album Haunted references it a lot.

The first time I saw it, Angel Heart scared me, and that is very, very rare. The Others was excellent, too, right up until the end. A slightly more obscure one was Dust Devil, with Chelsea Field.

My uncle knew him and has some pictures of both of them together, but they got burned in a fire.

Posted by: Whinney Horseshit at October 30, 2015 04:50 PM (aRUb8)

562
Probably not scary or horrifying to most folks but to a nine year old kid, seeing the "money shot" sequence in The Saint Velentine's Day Massacre on tv back in 1969 gave me many sleepless nights afterwards.
Growing up seeing cartoon violence on Batman and, well, cartoons, didn't prepare my sheltered little psyche for the sight of a bunch of guys lined up against a wall and mowed down. Messed me up big time.
Years later I was horrified after watching it again, as a grown up, by the horrible, drunken hamminess of Jason Robards' portrayal of Al Capone.
Then came that guy's head through the port hole in Jaws. That scene straight up f**ed me over..

Posted by: Bruce Strang at October 30, 2015 05:05 PM (bfJXM)

563
30ish years ago, 12-13 years old. Sleeping with the radio on and waking up in the wee hours to Vincent Price's narration on Thriller....
There was no more sleepytime that night

Posted by: Chico Escuela at October 30, 2015 05:09 PM (VvpaF)

564
Pigeons from Hell. Can't read it at night. Even in daytime it creeps me out.

Posted by: mangas colorados at October 30, 2015 05:09 PM (LYi+h)

565
I was also this stupid: first time watching Blair Witch I was home alone. At night. Wearing headphones.
I'm not gonna lie, I didn't go outside after dark for a week.

Posted by: Chico Escuela at October 30, 2015 05:14 PM (VvpaF)

566At Neo-Neocon, the commenter Artfldgr once said that
Rocky Horror Picture Show was actually an allegory for the Frankfurt
School's "long march through the institutions".

It sounds completely demented, but not so much if you really think about it.

Now that's scary.

Posted by: rickl at October 30, 2015 09:04 PM (sdi6R)0

The guy who played riff raff wrote and choreogrpohed and even did the music for the movie.Rocky Horror was about his sexual exploration in the mid seventies.

Posted by: Wickedpinto at October 30, 2015 05:18 PM (wdvFT)

567
The final elevator ride in Angelheart was creepy. Nothing like finding out you're truly damned.

Posted by: venus velvet at October 30, 2015 05:21 PM (g94P/)

568
Never been able to get through Alien. When they start combing the ship.. oh my gosh...

Posted by: macleod at October 30, 2015 05:26 PM (Qf5bp)

569
Yes, Henry
ortrait of a Serial Killer scared the absolute living shit out of me. It took me years before I could watch Michael Riker in anything.

571
Love this thread, so many of my favorites have already been mentioned so I'll have to second them:
Books - It, Salem's Lot, and Pet Sematary all get strong recommendations.
Short Stories - N, 1408, and for those that love Salem's Lot, "One for the Road" is a great little epilogue to SL that appears in King's Night Shift collection.
For me, The Color Out of Space is probably the creepiest of all the Lovecraft works, although Call of Cthulhu I can just read over and over.
The Great God Pan is interesting, but I was somewhat underwhelmed by it. The Wendigo is a much better one from that era, IMO.
Movies - Halloween and the Shining were the two movies that I saw on cable as a kid that kept me up all night in terror. Saw The Thing in the theater and it was just awesome for a kid in middle school (still holds up). Prince of Darkness is another one that you rarely hear about, but I'm glad to see it mentioned so often here, I saw that in college with a group and it freaked us all out. I probably saw Angel Heart 4 or 5 times in the theater when it came out, just loved that movie. Someone mentioned the hallway scene in Exorcist III, and I totally agree. I saw that one the night it opened at a midnight show and the entire theater about jumped through the roof.
543 - I saw Cat People at a Drive-In too! Still love the Bowie song from that movie.
Of the more recent movies, I'll also give a plus one to Coraline, which I saw with my kids, totally not knowing anything about it, and it gave them nightmares and is probably my favorite "children's movie" that I've seen with them.
Finally, I haven't seen this one mentioned, but the original Swedish version of "Let the Right One In" was probably the best horror movie of the last 10 years, for my money. Great sense of place and atmosphere (Soviet era Sweden) and a terrific payoff at the end.

Posted by: Bill Denbrough at October 30, 2015 06:07 PM (sFEk6)

572
The Shadow Over Innsmouth by Lovecraft for some reason gave me some weird dreams. One of the creepiest scenes I've ever read is when the frog people try to enter the protagonist's hotel room.

Posted by: Devil-Slayer at October 30, 2015 06:17 PM (vekWV)

573
VERY scary book:"Hostage to the Devil," by Malachi Martin, a Catholic scholar. Four or five supposedly true modern incidents of demonic possessions. Very creepy details.

574
One more good short story I didn't mention - The Jaunt in King's Skeleton Crew collection. Mankind develops teleportation technology, but you have to be asleep (anesthetized) for it, because while your body goes from one place to another in the blink of an eye, it lasts an eternity to your mind if you are awake for it. Of course, there are a couple of instances of that happening and that concept has always stuck with me.
House of Leaves is a very high concept book, in form and substance. I'm not sure I would call it scary, but you've never read a book quite like it, and it is very memorable.
The books of the Exorcist and Blatty's sequel Legion (what they made into Exorcist III) were very good reads.
A couple of movies I haven't seen mentioned are "The Sentinel" from the 70's, about a NYC Brownstone that has the Gate to Hell inside it. Also, the Serpent and the Rainbow, about voodoo in Haiti, is another underrated movie.

I like my horror movies to have some sort of comedy in them to lighten the pace and reset the scare level. Always watch these movies on Halloween:

(no particular order)

Evil Dead II: Bruce Campbell movie. favorite scene> Campbell's character cuts off his own hand with a chainsaw because it is possessed by a Demon...imprisons hand under a waste basket and puts books on top to hold the basket down over the still possessed hand.(one of the books is Hemingway's Farewell to Arms)

Frightners: Michael J. Fox and Jake Busey..Fox plays a ghost hunter and Busey plays the ghost of the town serial killer come back to increase his score of kills.

Jeepers Creepers: Justin Long>A brother and sister driving home for spring break encounter a flesh-eating creature in the isolated countryside that is on the last day of its ritualistic eating spree. Very Scary movie.

Posted by: Speller at October 30, 2015 06:45 PM (hHs1b)

576
Scary book - The Ghost Writer by John Harwood. Harwood is an Australian writer and the story is set in Australia and England. One of the psychologically creepiest stories I've ever read.

Posted by: biancaneve at October 30, 2015 07:09 PM (37TvV)

577
564: I'll second that. First read "Pigeons from Hell" over 40 years ago, and it still creeps me out.

Posted by: RovingCopyEditor at October 30, 2015 07:21 PM (/S5ss)

578
I second, third, and fourth the comment about Ann Rule's book on Ted Bundy, "The Stranger Beside Me."
The dude was smart, and he kept getting away. I read the book just before bedtime over the space of four evenings. The first night I slept ok - because I hadn't yet made it to the part where he had started killing. The last three nights I went to bed with the very distinct feeling that I wouldn't wake up.
The effect may have been worse for me because I've lived in two of the states where Bundy committed many of his murders, and knew many of his crime scenes quite well, and could find them with no need of a map. I even had a friend who lived right next door to where he kidnapped one of his victims.
Even more frightening is that Bundy may very well have started when he was 14, when an 8-year-old girl a few blocks from him disappeared without a trace - and with the same M.O. as Bundy's first admitted murders.
A Stephen King book don't come close.

Posted by: WJ at October 30, 2015 07:23 PM (m3LJi)

579
for my money "Ghost Story" (1981) is the scariest movie I have ever seen, although "The Ring" was also very scary.

Posted by: Shoey at October 30, 2015 07:29 PM (vA94g)

580
Creepy movie - The Innocents 1953? I think anyway, with Deborah Kerr. And nothing still scares me more than the Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson. Scared the bejeebers out of me as a kid. Happy Samhain!

Posted by: annie at October 30, 2015 07:30 PM (i/GN5)

581
"The Raft" by Stephen King. This is the one where the four kids swim out to the raft off shore where there's an oil slick. I think it's his best short story.

Actually it's not precisely scary, since you don't jump, and when it starts happening you know exactly what's happening. But you'll be breathing hard at the end.

I remember some King introduction where he ranked story effects as: horror, terror, and gross-out. He said he tries for the horror. If he can't get that he'll shoot for terror. If he can't get that he's just fine going for the gross-out.

You really have to wait for it, though, because it starts out like one kind of movie and then...

Very much like a fairy tale.

Posted by: Wry Mouth at October 30, 2015 10:27 PM (LbZ6h)

583472
Did C.S. Lewis ever try to write a horror novel or short story?

"That Hideous Strength," the 3rd in the Perelandra series. It's a standalone though. Horrifically, his invented bureaucratic/nightmare authority, the N. I. C. E. , has recently been echoed in the UK with the formation of a govt agency called NICE.

Posted by: Wry Mouth at October 30, 2015 10:35 PM (LbZ6h)

584
1. The psychopathic, murderous dad in Chuck Norris's "Silent Rage" scared me for a long time as a kid. In the beginning of the movie he kills his own wife with an ax to the forehead.
2. The villain in Pan's Labyrinth has a few scenes that will make you want to run and hide.

Posted by: MC at October 31, 2015 02:20 AM (B8a9Z)

585
'Burnt Offerings'
The creepy chauffeur scared the hell out of me as a kid.

587
What the hell is the name of the very short horror film Ace posted a while back that was just a woman turning her light on and off and.sometimes seeing a monster? That was a good one.

Posted by: Splatticusfinch at October 31, 2015 04:04 AM (cygkw)

588
That came out a couple of years ago and won a film-short award. I believe it is called 'Lights Out'.

Posted by: expat voyeur at October 31, 2015 05:27 AM (MJNu6)

589
Read Bird Box by josh malerman for a really scary book. It's short and a very fast read.

Posted by: ALow at October 31, 2015 08:16 AM (Melsq)

590
It was a part of a contest from last year about this time. It was alled "Lights out."

and the contest was called "two minute horror." or something very much like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adap4rzlM2I

Posted by: Wickedpinto at October 31, 2015 08:32 AM (wdvFT)

591
"Wait Until Dark" movie 1967 Audrey Hepburn, Richard Crenna, Ephram Zimbalist Jr,Alan Arkin and Jack Weston--saw it one time and would never, ever see it again because it terrified the life out of me. Recently blind woman territorized--enough said!

593
"The Exorcist" is the most intense horror novel that I have read. The plot thread involving the detecting who investigates the director's murder is much more detailed in the book. When I was in college, I actually kept the lights on when I read it. I am embarrassed by that now, but I am embarrassed by many things now.

Posted by: Daniel at October 31, 2015 01:22 PM (S2ia8)

594
I haven't seen it here yet - the scariest movie I have ever, ever seen is the movie "Threads," an anti-nuke documentary produced by the BBC in the mid-80s portraying in grim detail what nuclear war would look like in England. Terrifying not only for its depiction of the mushroom cloud and ensuing panic but the way the war destroys the "threads" holding together civilization; in a generation everyone is illiterate and having mutated children. Disturbing, depressing. A must see.

Posted by: Jeff at October 31, 2015 05:06 PM (80/Eq)

595
Big difference between disturbing and scary movies. Sometimes there's overlap ("The Exorcist") but usually not ("Irreversible", "Antichrist").
The biggest difference is that scary when done well is fun, disturbing is not. So I'll focus on scary.
I try to dig up the obscure ones, so I've two recommendations (both being "found footage" flicks - a gimmick that lends itself well to horror but seems worn out, until you stumble across the rare gems that so it well). One is the Spanish film "REC". The other is (bizarrely) Bobcat Goldthwait's "Willow Creek". "REC" is the overall more enjoyable watch, and if look into how it was made after you've seen it you'll find the methodology was quirky and inspired. "Willow Creek" is kind of a super, super dry near-comedy for a good portion of its run. But the last fifteen minutes of either one is *scary as fuck.*